actually, it is a bit more than that. but we do not need is a tax increase that will cost us 700,000 jobs. two years ago, the president said you do not want to raise taxes in a bad economy. the economy was better than that it is now. ladies and gentleman, this is a big choice. it is not only about taxes. it is about freedom. it is about our principles. it is about our country. it is about the idea of our country. america is so much more than a country with a flag. it is an idea. these ideas make us who we are. they make us special. i will see something that in washington is considered out of date or wrong, and it is this -- america is an exceptional

nation. we are not afraid to say so. [cheers and applause] >> usa! usa! usa! >> we have a chance to get ourselves on the right track. we have a chance to vote for someone who will protect our freedoms. he will lead to protect our religious freedom. he will protect our second amendment rights. ladies and gentlemen, right here in virginia, we have a big choice to make. america has a big choice to make. america will make the right choice. they saw last night who the right man for the job is. that man is standing back here. presidente the unite

of the united states. please welcome the next president of united states, mitt romney. [cheers and applause] ♪ [playing "born free"] ♪

>> that is one heck of a virginia welcome. thank you, virginia. [cheers and applause] you, paul. does the music just bring up your day? [applause] then he for the endorsement of the -- we appreciate the endorsement of the nra. [applause] last night was an important night for the country. [cheers and applause]

they got the chance to cut through all the attacks and counterattacks and all the theatrics associate with the campaign and instead listen to substance. i appreciate the fact athat jim lehrer asked questions about substance. i appreciated that i was able to ask obama about obamacare. i asked, why is it that the middle class is still buried in this country? why we have millions of people out of work? why is it that half of our children coming out of college cannot find a job? why is it that when he took office, 32 million people are on food stamps?

i asked him those questions. you heard his answers. as a result of those answers, the american people recognize that he and i stand for something very different. i will help the american people get good jobs and a bright future. [cheers and applause] even more importance than what was happening in the past was what he plans on doing for the future. he had the chance to describe his vision for the future. what it was was more of the same. he described a series of ideas that we have heard before. he talks about a stimulus and hiring more government workers and having the government making investments. of course, he talks about raising taxes. they plan to raise taxes on the american people and that will

kill jobs. we want to create jobs and not kill jobs in this country. [applause] we also heard this plan are raising taxes and cutting medicare. in fact, there has been a study released this week. the people look at his spending plans and all of the debt they create and interest that its charge. he will raise taxes on the middle class as well by some $4,000 per family. the american people do not want more taxes. they want less spending and more growth. we will do that and get america back on a balanced budget. [applause] i do not want to raise taxes on any one.

this president seems to think that keeping our taxes the same as they are now is a huge tax cut. only in washington would do thing keeping taxes as they are is a huge tax cut. hot i will find a way to bring our taxes down -- i will find a way to bring down our taxes. we will give the middle class a tax break. [cheers and applause] you know when it comes to creating jobs that paul ryan and i have a plan. it is not a repeat of the last four years because we cannot afford four more years of the last four years. it is an entirely different direction. it has five different parts. number one, we will take advantage of our energy, coal, gas, oil, nuclear.

the president has cut in half the number of permits and licenses on federal lands and in federal waters. i will double them. the president has made it virtually impossible to build a coal industry in this country. we have a lot of coal and i want to use it. the want thet w keystone pipeline. i will get us that oil from canada. i will open up more trade. we can trade on a fair basis with people around the world. but when people steal our jobs and trade practices as a china has, i will hold them accountable. we cannot let our jobs get stolen unfairly. i want to make sure the people have the skills that they need to succeed.

i want training programs that prepare people for the jobs of today. right now have 47 different federal training programs reporting to eight different agencies. think of the overhead and the bureaucracy and waste. i want to take of that money and give virginia its fair share and say, you create the training programs that work for your people. that the federal government out of it. [cheers and applause] you're not going to get entrepreneurs to start a new business or big corporations to expand and build a new facility and hire more people if they believe we are on the road to greece. if this president is re-elected, that is the road we will be on. i will cut and cap spending and as to a balanced budget. -- get us to a balanced budget. [cheers and applause] the last up to get this economy going is to do this --

championed small businesses. help them grow and keep their taxes down. by the way, the president has a bad idea when it comes to small businesses. this is his idea of taking away the right of the secret ballot for workers when they decide whether or not they won a union. they should have a right to a secret ballot. he wants to take it away. i will protect the rights of workers. [applause] president obama says that he has created 5 million new jobs. what he has not told you is that the economy has not created jobs like it should have. this has been the slowest

recovery since the great depression. as a matter of fact, he said we would be at 5.4% of unemployment. instead we are at 8.1%. 9 million jobs at different. that is the difference. when paul and i get to the white house, we will get america back to working with 12 million jobs. [cheers and applause] let me make this point clear. 8.1% unemployment understates what is really going on. a lot of people are working. they are having a hard time making ends meet. their incomes have gone down by $4,300 per year. the price of gasoline has gone up. the price for crude is up. middle income families, even those who have jobs are having a

hard time. the principal reason the unemployment rate has been creeping down is because people have dropped out of the workforce. they have stopped working. they do not count them when they decide how many people are unemployed. the same share of the workforce are engaged in looking for a job right now as when the president took office, the unemployment rate would be shown eight. -- shut at 11.2%. -- shown at 11.2%. when paul and i get back to washington, we will put america back to worked again. [applause] what you did not hear last night on the president is why it is the next four years could be

better. he does not have a way to explain that. he has the same policy for the next four years. he calls it "forward" and i call it "forewarned." with your help, paul ryan and i will get elected. [cheers and applause] you'll see enterprises a large and small decide to open their doors and expand. we will see the kind of recovery that america needs and deserves. i have confidence in the american people. i know that created and patriotic people in here. we love this country. there is no other nation on earth like it. we are an exceptional nation. i believe that. when the founders wrote that document known as the declaration of independence,

they changed the world with insights that god gave us our rights and not the government. [cheers and applause] these are rights which we have. i love america. my confidence in the future comes from my passion for this country and for the people of this country. do you realize how unusual we are as a people? i do not know how it began, but it is here. it is in our hearts. some years ago when i was serving as governor of my state, the then president of israel came to boston. i happen to have a lunch with apartment.eone's someone said to him, what you

think about america's involvement in iraq? he said, before i answer that, i need to put this into context. it said that america is the greatest nation in the history of earth. he said, i say this because of this -- in the history of the earth, whenever there has been work and conflict, the nation that wind takes land away from the nation that loses because land has always been the source of value on the planet. he said one nation in history, one nation, has laid on the lives of hundreds and thousands of its sons and daughters and has taken no land. america is unique. [cheers and applause] >> usa! usa!

usa! usa! >> the secretary of state said, the only land america has taken from other lands is enough land to bury our dead. this is a great and exceptional nation. we have people in this nation who prizes freedom and love this country which was based upon the rights given by god. we is extraordinary challenges, but we are an extraordinary people. we need leadership in washington back to work with both parties and get america back on track. we need to restore the principles that made america the shining light on the hill. i love this country. i love the people of this country. i love the prospect we have of getting this country strong again. i can that this country to be strong again with your help.

paul ryan and i will get america back on track. this nation is coming back. we will get our economy going and keep our military strong. we will keep our values first and foremost. thank you. thank you. [cheers and applause] ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

♪

[playing "it's america" by rodney atkins] ♪ prom, it'sgh school a springsteen song, it's a ride

in a chevrolet moon andn on the barflies in june and kids selling lemonade its cities and farms, its open arms, one nation under god ♪'s america ♪h yeah, whoo ♪

[playing "sideways" by dierks bentley] ♪

♪ hey now here we go nothing slowplay gotta make them come back for

more ♪ ♪ gonna get a little bit sideways ♪ na na na na ♪ just about ended four hours after the presidential debates, mitt romney talking to norfolk, virginia. we are opening up our phone lines to get your thoughts on what you heard from mitt romney and also from paul ryan and what you thought about the debate. you can call us at at 202-585-

3885 if you are a democrat. call 202-585-3886 if you are a republican. call 202-585-3887 if you are an inindependent. we have a caller on the line. go ahead. caller: i believe that these two have sold their souls to the douevil. i think that they are hypocrites. total hypocrites. >> we have a republican caller

from florida. go ahead. caller: i feel like, maybe, it seems like every year some blame them for what they have dawn or have not done. what is really going to happen? >> anger facebook page showed the people won the -- mitt romney won the debate last night. -- on our facebook page, a majority of people said that mitt romney won the debate last night. who did you think one? caller: i think it was mitt romney. >> let's go to our next call from oregon. caller: i was really impressed with that debate last night. we need a good businessman. i think we need some new energy

and new ideas. spending is out of control. we need a party that can get it under control and i think it is a romney and ryan. 6 politics aside. we have too much government in our lives. >> we need to put politics aside. we have too much government in our lives. >> we have taken the debates and broken into topic areas. joe biden is out campaigning in iowa. he talked about what he thought the president did last night. >> i thought the president did well. you never know what game that

governor romney will come out with. the centerpiece of the economic policies so far has been tax cuts. last night we found out that he does not -- i guess the outdoors that to china -- outsourced that to china. i don't know. i think as time goes on, it will become pretty clear that the governor romney has changed a number of his positions are does not remember his positions. at the end of the day, we have bought two debates coming up for the president, and i feel real good about it. -- we have two the dates coming up for the president, and i feel real good about it. it is easy to say i would have

done this or said that, but remember he was in front of many people. all debates are tough. i am looking forward to it. the thing with congressman ryan is that he has been straightforward up until now. there are significant changes he wants to make, but we have a fundamental view on a whole range of issues. i think it would be a good debate. >> [no audio] >> i have been setting up on a congressman ryan's stands on issues. i do not want to say anything in the debate that is not completely accurate. i have been saying to all of you that governor romney has

embraced the right and a budget. he has. -- ryan budget. he has. it is mainly getting the facts ready on the key issues. thank you. >> vice president joe biden was in iowa earlier today. his debate with paul ryan is about one week away. we will have that live for you on c-span. we're taking your reaction this morning from mitt romney and norfolfishersville,

virginia. >> i like that he supports americans being able to own firearms. >> our next caller is on the democrats lined. caller: hello. i am a conservative democrat, a reagan democrat. people need to wake up. you have someone here who is running for president of the united states who will bring honesty and courage back to the united states. the president has been in office for almost four years. he has devastated this country. he has put us into some much debt that it will take a stand presidents to get as out of this mess. every time joe biden opens his mouth, he puts his foot into it. >> last time around, did you vote for john mccain?

>> yes. i vote for the man and not for the party. >> our hash tag is c-span #2012. speaking of the president, if you and the iraq war act of years ago, why did not bring the troops from four years ago? back to the phone calls. we will take a caller from florida. independent line. caller: hello. i have followed this all the time on my tv. i have seen presidents come and go.

i was a republican many years ago. i realize that every time we had a republican president, money does not go around. the more affluent people keep it. our economy goes down. i think during the last -- when clinton was in, he balanced the budget. when bush and got it, they spent money like it was going out of style. >> is your vote going to barack obama this time? >> yes. i feel that he is qualified in every phase of the government. i do not think romney knows enough about foreign policy. i think he will get us into a war if he keeps saying what he

is saying. >> we will hear about for a policy more in the debate in florida. -- foreign policy it in the debate in florida. >> last night was an important night for the country. [cheers and applause] the got the chance to cut through of all the attacks and counterattacks associate with the campaign. instead they're able to listen to substance. i appreciated the fact that jim lehrer asked questions about substance. i was able to ask the president, why did he focus on obamacare

when we have millions of people out of work? [applause] why isn't that the middle class is the bird in this country? why we have so many people out of work? -- why is it that the middle class is a paraburied in this country? millions of people are on food stamps. i asked him those questions and you heard his answers. as a result of those answers, the american people recognize that he and i stand for something very different. i will help the american people get good jobs and a bright future. [cheers and applause] even more important than what was happening in the past is what he plans on doing for the future. he had the chance to describe

his vision for the future and what it was was more of the same. he described a series of ideas which we have heard before. he talks about a stimulus and hiring more garment workers. it talks about the government making investments and of course he talks about raising taxes. the vice president blurted out the truth and the plan on raising taxes for the american people and that will kill jobs. we will not let that happen. we want to create jobs and not kill jobs in this country. [cheers and applause] [applause] we also heard this plan are raising taxes and cutting medicare. in fact, there has been a study released this week. the people look at his spending plans and all of the debt they create and interest that its charge. he will raise taxes on the middle class as well by some $4,000 per family.

the american people do not want more taxes. they want less spending and more growth. we will do that and get america back on a balanced budget. [applause] >> back to your phone calls and comments on mitt romney this evening. republican line. caller: i wanted to say to america -- give them tax breaks. let them grow their business. i will make more money. give them tax breaks. do not tax them or do anything wrong to them. if you tax them more, they will not want to grow. they will not want to hire people.

give them tax breaks. >> how do you think the race will go in florida? for mitt'm voting romney. >> next caller is on our independent line. go ahead. caller: this is wade. >> go ahead with your comments. caller: it is important to us that governor romney is talking about first amendment rights and religious freedom. sometimes that gets played over in america. as victims in a church in mississippi, we have had many a salted. we're not even allowed to eat in certain restaurants.

we are hoping that the religious persecution, which has been ongoing, perhaps when mr. romney becomes our next president, we are hoping that whoever gets the office, we have the worst civil rights violation in mississippi and the correction in the local and state government in mississippi. lives are being hurt. children are being kidnapped. i was very motivated to your mitt romney talk about the first amendment. >> we will get a couple more calls. back to our twitter stream. -- her ee is one

this one says -- ours go to a caller on democrat line. go ahead. caller: i am a registered democrat. i am on a fixed income. i worry about our medicare and social security. people are on fixed incomes and depend on social security and medicare. i will vote for mitt romney. i feel that he is the one to straighten out this country and the mess that it is in. i voted for a bomb at of years ago and i am very disappointed in him -- obama four years ago

and i am very disappointed in him. >> what made you decide to vote for mitt romney? >> i think he is the only one who could really get us out of this position that we are in. it can go on like this. i am against obama for what he did and taking 4 $5 billion out of our medicare system and putting it into obamacare. >> thank you for your calls. continue to comment if you want you on twitter and c-span.org. both presidential candidates will have campaign appearances

tomorrow. we will have live coverage of president obama speaking at george mason university and later on mitt romney will be speaking in virginia. both of those will be live here on c-span. >> we need to tackle our nation ' as challenges. we need to save and strengthen medicare and social security. we're not going to scare seniors. we will save benefits for seniors and for my generation so that these promises are kept. they have laid out -- >> they say that we stole medicare and you have seen the ads and everything. nothing could be further from the truth. >> next thursday night, congressman paul ryan and vice president joe biden will face

off in their only debate. it will be in kentucky. you can watch and engage with our live preview starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern, followed by the debate at 9:00 p.m. follow our live coverage on c- span, c-span radio, and online at c-span.org. >> see the only vice- presidential debate next thursday, october 11, live on c- span, c-span radio, and online at c-span.org. watch and engage. in a few minutes, a look at the presidential debates. in an hour-and-a-half, partisan politics and compromise. after that, president obama in colorado and mitt romney in virginia. >> almost 20 years ago, we broadcast one of the most controversial stories in our 44

years on the air. i was accused of being a philistines, and lacking the ascetic ability to appreciate the challenging nature of some contemporary art. >> what made everyone so mad years ago? >> i discovered something that i had absolutely could barely believe. when the question someone's taste in art, it is personal and probing than politics, religion, sexual preference. it is something that goes to the very soul when you say, you got that? >> "60 minutes" with morley

safer. sunday at 8:00 p.m. on c-span's "q&a." cracks up next, a look at the immediate impact that last night's debate had on voters. this is about 90 minutes. ♪ >> good morning, everyone. i would like to invite you to take your seat. we will go ahead and get started. thank you for joining us on this thursday. thank you to everyone who is joining us on the live stream and those watching on c-span to and the voice of america.

for those of you i do not know and have not met, my name is victoria. it is my pleasure to welcome you on behalf of all my colleagues to this wonderful discussion. before we get started, a few items to give you a sense of what is coming. charlie will be up in a moment. he will give us is take on last night's debate. guests, be joined by two ga who will also offer their perspectives on the debate and the upcoming election. we are grateful to all of the participants this evening. please think about what you would like to ask. we will be handed out microphones and you will be able to ask questions. you can also ask questions on twitter. we welcome thought and insight

on there as well. finally, if you would not mind silencing your cell phones, it would help immensely. we are able to gather this morning things to the generosity and underwriting support of united technologies. it is a very diversified country comprised of several well-known brands and to many of you. utc has been a wonderful partner with national journal. this is a charlie cook again this year. we conducted a poll while congress was in session and the information here. as readers, you can be informed via utc. i want to say thank you to the entire team at utc for

partnering with us on this event and the congressional connection poll. greg ward needs all the government and state affairs for utc. he is well known in washington and will respected and very well liked. please welcome mr. ward. [applause] >> thank you for the introduction. but a wonderful introduction. something must have happened last night. i think it is probably the nats coming in for a place. anyway, this will be a great session this morning. we have had a long affiliation with thcharlie.

it is always a great event to participate in. a looks like we might have a presidential race here. i know everyone is looking forward to hearing from charlie. with that, i will handed back to victoria. thank you for being here. [applause] >> i've been all of the know charlie cook. he has been provided insight and analysis. he and his team have put together some of the best political reports and analysis in town. the are red and valued by both sides of the political aisle. at a time when news and information on political campaigns has become -- they are read and valued by both sides of the political aisle. charlie has been called the best

political handicapper by the new york times. many of us thinks he walks on water. please welcome charlie cook. [applause] can walk onc a water, it must be pretty thick ice. thank you. greg and i have been friends for a summer over 25 years. probably close to 30. boy, this room, look at this span. anyway, thank you for coming at outbaout.

i wan to get to glen and fred. they are two of the best pollsters on their respective sides of the aisle. they are incredibly well regarded. they are long time good friends. i want to have plenty of time with those guys. just a quick reaction to what happened last night. unfortunately, i had to do a column that i had to hand in yesterday's morning. i got an e-mail from my editor who is suggesting taking it a little bit. i am not sure what they will end up doing with the. and the point that i try to make is that everyone tries to make a

binary. the race is either too close to call or it is over. there is nothing in between. going into this debate, this really was not and in between the situation where president obama was ahead. governor romney desperately needed to shake this race of. something had to change the trajectory and this election. it needed to be something very substantial. here we are now at this momentous event. it was in the realm of debates. this is certainly much more decisive, i think, then pretty much any other debate that any of us can remember.

i thought governor romney did a fabulous job on both a relative basis. quite fabulous and on a nominal basis. he did very well. i think it is true to say that superiorbama is 8 superia orator and i think mitt romney is a superior debater. it occurred to me that this reminded me of the mitt romney i met in 1994 when he was running for the senate. he met with me. he was incredibly impressive and fact driven. he was a very pragmatic.

obama seemed like -- i wouldn't say smug, but someone who did not seem terribly hungry for it. i do not think there is any question that when you look at some of the -- and i am not really big on these polls -- but what you see on the cn and research corp on who did the best job, romney got 67. 82% said romney did better than expected.

democracy -- the democratic polling firm -- romney has a good night. i agree with them on that. he had a good night. we will have to see in a couple of days if it will change the game. they had wal-mart, a focus groups with the momentum analysis. you know, it suggested that it was a win for running. -- romney. it said that there disappointed with the president's

performance. they did not believe how he made a case for another four years of making things better. neither of the guys connect with voters on a personal level, but clearly it romney did. we will see a lot of reviews are for the next few days. the key thing for us to watch is that romney won the debate. the question is, how much does this change things. in terms of the national polls, he will get a few points out of this. the harder and more relevant points is, one, does he move ohio? does he moved the swing voters in the swing states? that is what is relevant. i have no idea been. you show me an undecided voter in a swing state like ohio.

they have been bombarded with ads since june. the undecided were a lot smaller than nationally. i have sort of concluded that, you know, if you are in ohio and you are still undecided, you might never decide. you probably will not vote. maybe there is something wrong with you. i am not being dismissive that this cannot change them, but the thing about it is, we should be careful about imposing as people and everyone watching this on c- span and voice of america. they are very attentive the people. we are watching and paying a lot of attention to this. we have to be a little bit careful about how some pass the people who do not like politics

and do not like politicians and who are cynical and skepticism and sour about whether their reactions will be exactly the same as ours. this is a consequential event. i think without any hesitation at all, had is gone the other way, had mitt romney not done well, i think this would have been game set match. republicans were nervous. they could make a desperate push to get every possible senate seat and possible control because the romney king would not happen. that is what was what would have happened if romney gave a poor performance. not only did he escape that, but

he turned in an extremely strong one. the question is, how much does this move in the ohio, virginia, florida, and colorado in the swing states? we will have a great discussion. you'll hear from two of the smartest people in the business. i think we need to probably discuss and talk about this. we can look at the polls. tonight is thursday night. start looking at polls on sunday, monday, and tuesday to get full samples in after the debate and after people have had conversations in the supermarket aisles and over the coffee maker at office. see where this is. clearly this is a game changing event. how much does it change things?

swing states is what matters. i think we will have a lot of fun in 100 words or less. i do not think even before the debate the house was not in play. democrats were going to get somewhere between 25 seats to get a net gain in the house. but, you know, there is no evidence whatsoever that this was according to the-heading to certain seats. there probably had to get a certain number of seats. it did not look that bad. today it sure as hell does not look that good now in the

aftermath of that debate. the senate, i will make one prediction. i think there is a very fair noon, we may noton know who might be the majority in the senate. we are looking at an impossible -- we are looking at about 10 toss-up races. my colleague pointed out that when this set of senate seats were last up in 2006, we had three races and 4.8 million people voted total. those three races were decided by 66,600 votes out of 4.8 million.

it was hanging by a thread. that is how close it was. i think there are five, six, seven races that could be decided by, you know, pick a number. controlling not only the senate, but a several-seat margin. there is an enormous amount of volatility in the senate picture. we will see how it plays out. glen and fred, why don't you join me? we are going to have fun. i will ask them a handful of questions and then we will open up to the audience and let you guys ask questions and have a great morning. wow.

bolger, you are on my left. that is awesome, to have a republican on my left. thank you for joining us. we know you are incredibly busy. how many races are you working on right now? >> one at a time. [laughter] >> give us a ballpark. >> 15 to 20. >> you are set up a little differently. >> a lot. >> these guys are seeing an enormous amount of data every week. put fred on the spot. it was not a good night. quickly, what was your reaction to last night and what it means? >> first of all, as a yankees fan, a nats fan, and a romney

fan, it was a pretty good night. thank you for having fred and i. these are always fun to do. i am a huge fan of your jet engines, utc, particularly when they work. i am still here, so that is a great sign. the tw factors from last night, how much did mitt romney raise his image? we have seen a number of polls showing 2 to 3 points. mitt romney came across as somebody who was more genuine that they it -- than they had realized. this guy could step into the oval office and have no problems doing it.

i am not sure that any other republican running in the primaries would have been able to pull that off last night. and i am being generous. [laughter] what i wonder is, we do our dialing between 5:00 and 9:00 p.m. on the west coast, how do you do a national poll tax everybody is going to bed -- on the east coast, how do you do a national poll? everybody is going to bed. among undecideds -- look, the first decision they make is, do i want to vote for barack obama? he is the incumbent, the guy in

charge for the last four years. if they are undecided, the answer has been no. there is something they are concerned about with mitt romney, which is why they are undecided. in 10 states, two weeks ago, there were 6% of the voters undecided. that is a pretty significant amount. it sounds like a small number, but a pretty significant amount. did that 6% look at romney last night and say, this is somebody i feel a lot better about than i did coming into this debate. some were not paying attention and some were. for those who were not -- who were paying attention, the answer has to be yes. i think you will see a bump in the polls for romney. 67% believed that romney won the debate.

that is a stunning number. usually, our side thinks our guy one and their side thinks there got one. -- thinks their guy won. it was pretty decisive. >> explain to a group of people -- i doubt there is an undecided voter in this room. what do undecided voters look like? >> the kind of people who tell the waiter to come back at a restaurant because they have not made up their mind. [laughter] when you look at undecided voters, they generally tend to be younger women than anything else. in this case, i am seeing an even division between men and women. they tend to be more independent. they are either somewhat conservative to moderate.

only 18% of the undecided voters in the swing states say the country is going in the right direction. 70% say it is on the wrong track. that is much more negative than the country as a whole. that is why i believe romney is poised to pick up some of them. >> anybody who thinks the next debate will be the same as this one, i think they are making a mistake. of what is going to say, let's throw that playbook out and try something different. -- obama is going to say, let's throw that playbook out and try something different. >> the debate was over and i thought, romney did pretty good. obama seemed pretty flat. watching the post-debate and some this morning, the romney performance went from here to here in the analysis.

as someone who, if you want to or not, pushed back a little bit -- push back a little bit but keep in mind x. tell us how well the president did. >> or try to avoid it. >> first, i would like to thank charlie and the "national journal" for this event. i think both glen and i would agree, charlie is someone that both of us can trust because he plays it right down the line. >> i am also thin and handsome. >> i have to deal with the reality. [laughter] i like what glenn said.

-- what glen said,. . the issue for governor romney was likability. i do not think he has -- i do not think he has had a lot of time to show likability. what he did last night was a single-minded focus on what his strength is and what the concern of the country is. i think he did his job. for all of us in this room who are probably not undecided, i think the campaign kickoff, i do not know, 2009. for a lot of us who are consumers of news and followers of politics, the convention's probably start it. this is the campaign. for the undecided voters in ohio and other places, and i know it

is weird to state with all of the ads they are watching. let me back it up. there are a lot of ads that are playing. it does not mean everybody is watching them all of the time. for the average person, i think the campaign started last night. we have a long time left to go still. what mitt romney -- mitt romney did what he had to do. he made this a much more competitive general election. i think president obama, i do not think he did as badly as the pundits are saying this morning. i think, the next debate, he will probably have a different demeanor. the debate last night was much more important to mitt romney than barack obama. i do not know how much this changes the landscape. this race is very competitive.

if you look at the eight battleground states, depending on the polls, president obama is winning all of them, but the margins are pretty close. what the debates could do for democrats and the president and also the voters it signals the game is on. i think you will see much more enthusiasm. people talk about research and p.o.s. does the polling for one sub-group, latinos -- >> so you're the conspirators on the left wing of the polling. >> barack obama is ahead by 50 points with latinos. the question is, their

enthusiasm was less than 2008. that is another aspect. >> my thinking had been, while it was mathematically possible for romney to get the electoral votes without ohio, michigan, pennsylvania, that was like a three or four-cushion shot in pool. is ohio what we should be looking at more than anything else? >> that is a good question. it is much easier for mitt romney to win the presidency if he wins ohio. i entered this election cycle believing that there were three key states instead of just florida and ohio. i would add virginia to that list. the next half level down is

north carolina. clearly, governor romney is stronger in florida and virginia. those are very competitive states right now. all i know is someplace where he does need a significant comeback. fred's points are well-taken. for a lot of voters, the election started last night. if he is going to have a comeback in ohio, it started last night. >> president obama won last time, beating senator mccain by seven points. part of it was 66% of the vote among 18-29-year-old, a large percentage of latino voters,

african-americans were like 95% to 4% or something like that. the african-american support is very strong. let's assume parity for this time. as you suggested, the turnout levels among latino voters and, i would add, young voters, is very much questionable. when i go on campuses, i cannot find a pulse. there might be a couple of people behind the table to register people and nobody in front of the table, registering. there is no pulse there. is it safe to say that a seven- point margin becomes six or five or four, ticking turnout down among these two groups. by necessity, this will be a lot

closer. >> in 2008, the president had a seven-point margin. a seven-point margin for a democrat is big. that is a historic margin. all of us expected this to be a closer race. the thing that we should look for, with early voting, we have metrics. one of the things about campaigns, on every side, north carolina, half of the voters will have voted before election day. you can track that every day. who they are and, more importantly, how they voted. in campaigns, from presidential down to city council, every aspect matters. field, message, turnout, tv.

the air wars get coverage because they are on tv but the ground wars are just as important. in a poll that our two firms collaborated on, the president was winning among independent voters by 13 points. in 2008, he defeated john mccain by 8% of independents. let's see where polls settle. i will be looking at the independent numbers. the other thing about barack 43% of election, he won the white vote. in most of the national polls, that is where he is.

look, the country is changing. in 2008, three-quarters of the electorate was white, down from the mid to high-80's. that number is going to change. in a close election -- i do not think anybody thought it would be a seven-point race. the metrics are there for him to win. >> to me, the most stunning numbers from 2008 -- if you take out 18-29-year-old and look just at 30 plus, mccain and obama tied. that shows you how important the youth vote is to the president. that is why you see air force one showing up near -- at airports near major universities. they recognize that fact. john mccain beat barack obama

55-43 among white voters. george w. bush, in 2000, beat al gore among white voters 55-43. the margin was the same. how did gore and bush is essentially tied? you might not know this, but bush won the election. [laughter] in the electoral college, a cool thing that is in the constitution. eight years later, what was ssentially a popular vote tie becomes 87-point below. fred talks about how hard it is for a democrat to win a seven- point margin. republicans cannot. it is impossible. if mitt romney wins the popular vote, it will be by .02, if at all.

the party has to figure out how to do much better with minority voters. african-americans, it will be hard for us to get their vote for a while because the president is black. republicans have to do significantly better than we are doing right now. in the future, we have to do significantly better with latino voters. >> the republican political model is not sustainable, the current one. it has to change. one technical question -- when i look at various polls, and a lot of times the top numbers look very reasonable and consistent, and when you start looking at splits, it starts getting more erratic. i see more independent numbers

all over the map. it seems to vary enormously. is it how they were the party id question, the position in question? i have seen polls that have had romney ahead by four or six points, which is obviously not what the wall street journal poll had. is there any reason other than when you start tightening it up, the margin of error goes up? >> there should not be that much variation. when you were asking that question, i was thinking one of the explanations could be a difference.ys' unlike democrats or republicans, they do not have roots. i am a democrat. i pretty much know how i am going to vote.

>> mt "national journal" collea gue went through a lot of research and points to non- college educated white women as a group that has moved some in the last couple of weeks. non-college educated white men are a no-fly zone for the president. but the women were up for grabs. have you noticed anything like that? is that a metric you are looking at? >> it is. everybody talks about the women's vote. there are a number of factors. people do not realize this -- john mccain won white women by seven points. that is not enough to win overall. obviously, he lost by seven points. when you look at white women

voters, there are groups that are more likely to vote republican. those include white women without college degrees, white women who are married, and women with children. when you look at the differences between white women who are married and white women who are single, whether it be they are not married, they are widowed, or they are divorced, those groups vote overwhelmingly for obama. if ron is right and the president is making gains with non-college educated white women, that is problematic for our side. i have not seen as much as -- as much of a shift as he has. >> let's open it up. >> everyone says -- >> are we doing mics?

>> people say that the vp choice does not matter, but they are next up. given what happened last night, is it important, the debate? is it going to mean that people are going to, based on what happened last night, say, yes, i am going to for sure before romney? -- for sure be for romney? does it have that kind of impact? >> toomey, this is going to be a close race. -- to me, this is going to be a close race. in close races, everything matters more. i think it will. historically, vice presidential debates do not matter a lot. somebody last night was making the point that bentsen destroyed dan quayle. it did not make a difference, but he destroyed him. i do not know.

do one of you want to take a swing at it? >> there are two presidential debates after that one. i think it will be more watched by folks like us, who are interested in politics. the overall electorate will pay attention more to the presidential. i am not downplaying the importance of the vice- presidential, anything can make a difference. but it would be surprising. >> it is like the olympics, when they had the basketball games for the bronze medal. everyone is waiting for the champion of the gold medal game. but it is the only debate next week. it will drive some of the coverage. it will either continue the momentum that romney has after last night or it will be seen, if vice-president biden does

well, it will be seen as the first step for the obama team to get its footing back. in the world we live in now, where everything is analyzed instantaneously, even before it happens, i think it is a meaningful event next week. >> it is important until the next presidential debate and then it becomes fairly irrelevant. >> it is important until it is over. >> they should have a disclaimer -- this debate is for entertainment purposes only. >> chicago is saying, thank god we have biden to pick us up after last night. [laughter] >> if first impressions are the most important and if the average american really tuned in for the first time, would

that suggest that the next two presidential debates are less important? what is your opinion on how much the second and third presidential debates can matter? >> i think they are still very significant. it seems like ancient history now, but reagan's first debate against mondale did not go well and he turned it around in the second debate. what everybody wanted to happen, in terms of the voters, they wanted to reelect reagan because things were going well. they breathed a sigh of relief and nobody remembers much from the first debate. i think it would be premature to say that it is one and done after last night. >> i agree. the next two will be very important also. >> we should also mention, glen's firm, a partner is

governor romney's pollster. fred's firm is doing the primary super pac on the democratic side. everybody has dogs in the fight. i have been very, very, very critical of the romney campaign , the part that glen's partner has not been at fault in. other aspects have been critical and i think there are things that need to happen, romney needed to connect on a personal level and it may have happened last night. part of this may be getting some task completed that probably should have happened in june,

july, august, or at the convention. he made up for some lost ground here. i think the next two debates, or if it is a really close race, it is now going to be a really, really close race. on the very back row, up against the window. >> one demographic that i do not think has come up this morning is senior citizens 65 and older. could you talk about how you are seeing polls of that demographic change to the extent that the election of paul ryan and his liabilities on medicare is becoming a problem for the romney campaign and perhaps in some of the senate races. >> who would like to go first?

>> in 2008, if we look at the exit polls, president obama lost seniors by 8 points. in 2010 midterm elections, when the exit polls aggregated, democrats lost seniors by 20, which was one reason why 2010 happened, which i would like to forget. looking to our nbc-wall street journal poll, the president was trailing the seniors by close to the 2008 margins, nine points. i think paul ryan is a very smart person. clearly, the romney team must feel he is qualified to be vice- president of the united states. as a democratic analyst, to us, it re-ignited the whole medicare

issue. we had spent a lot of time talking about the ryan plan. sometimes, we would talk about the ryan plan without saying "the ryan plan" because people did not know who paul ryan was. now they do. we have done polling and seen is an effective message for democrats against republicans, to talk about the ryan plan. >> let me push back a little here. >> go right ahead. [laughter] >> a day or two before governor romney made his decision about his running mate, i was talking to another pollster. runs the democracy corps.

they have been trying to use the ryan plan to beat republican members of congress over the head. like you said, nobody knew who paul ryan was. as we were getting off the phone, i said, i will give you this. i do not think governor romney is going to pick paul ryan. but if he does, we will have another conversation. it strikes me that democrats have not effectively made medicare and the rhine plan -- the ryan plan, i have seen the polling and how it moves people. i have not seen them in flicked a lot of bodily damage on republicans on the ryan plan, on medicare, so far.

am i missing something? has it had a meaningful effect or not? >> the quick answer would be, we will find out in 33 days. >> apparently, we are going to find out in 33 days. [laughter] the first observation i make is that there is this presumption in the press, boy, paul ryan, what a risky mistake he was. test polls show that paul ryan generally has a better image than joe biden. if joe biden is the answer, i do not want to know what the question is. secondly, senior citizens -- republicans have to -- we have had decades of dealing with democratic demagoguery on issues

like social security, medicare, or both. the first page in democratic campaign plans is minority turnout. the first page in republicans' is, how do we make sure we do not get hurt among senior citizens? this is something our campaigns are very aware of. we have had messages that we have tested. yes, it is effective. you test a democratic attack versus a republican response, and it basically plays to a tie. i do not think it will be the game-changer that democrats think that it is. the one thing to keep an eye on are the near-seniors. seniors are already getting medicare, social security. they know that the rug is not going to be pulled out from

under them because there would be a huge price to pay. the near-seniors are more concerned, more moving around in our polling. that is a group that we are targeting as well. >> as a near-senior, let me pick phil. >> could you discussed the impact of motor suppression efforts on election results versus polling results? we have seen an increase, in the last few years, in voter suppression efforts, such as the recent conviction in maryland. this year, we have seen the requiring of photo ids and such. how do you account from that in polling, especially given that there are about 10 lawsuits pending that could negate some

of the new laws that are intended to require photo ids for voters? >> first observation is, in terms of the case in maryland, that was one misguided example. never should have happened. the race was not that close. it was a huge mistake by that individual and he paid for it with a time in prison. in terms of your concerns about voter i.d., and having to show id, i live in virginia and just got my voter card. they allow any kind of thing, a utility bill, or anything like that. it is a lot easier to vote then to get on an airplane. if you are worried about fraud, i think that these are

reasonable requirements. >> in terms of polling, to the extent that both firms can, we try to pull a registered voter list. registered voters who have presumably -- i mean, we try to sample who have not only registered -- people who have not only registered but voted in the last election. >> in a lot of states, they have to have a photo id. how do you account for that? >> our callers asked you to show them your folder id -- your photo i.d. >> not a lot that you can do. some places, they have been thrown out or put aside for this election. for me, i have no problem

requiring an id as long as, number one, the government makes a proactive efforts to go to people who are qualified and registered to vote but do not have ids -- i wonder, for example, in some states, why does an expired driver's license not work? did your identity change? you are 93 years old. your driver license expired four years ago. what is the problem there? and that it is kosher. in other words, a concealed carry permit in texas is allowed. why it is a university of texas student i.d. not counted? above and beyond that, i do not

think it is particularly onerous. most people in society, unless they are in homes, institutionalize settings, they do have ids. the government can do things to help those people get ideas. that should be part of the deal. let's go back to the center. >> i was wondering if you could comment on the format for the three debates and how you see that connecting with the two candidates. >> we are speechless. first of all, i thought the debate last night -- i was stunned at how the moderator let

himself get walked over by the candidates in terms of the timing. it was like the two minutes did not matter. when i am about to die, i want barack obama's 5 seconds, because they lasted forever. [laughter] on the other hand, i thought it was pretty good. people are like, there is so much policy in this debate. these two people showed that they are both very smart people and they both could be president. one by virtue of being president and the other by virtue of their showing last night. i thought it worked out really well in terms of the back and forth. it was more of a debate than a dinner talk or something. >> i agree.

as a political fall or, like all of you are, -- a political follower, like all of you are, i liked the elasticity. just let them talk. i do not think it affected the performance of either candidate. it was what it was. i thought it was neat that they were talking a lot. >> it was more british style than american-style, which was good. >> do i think that jim lehrer was a weak moderator? yes. that is okay. it is not about the moderator. it is about the candidates, not the moderator showboating. i thought it was good. >> if you asked both sides, the

romney folks would say romney -- irani folks would say obama talked longer and the obama side would say romney talk longer. >> president obama talked about 5 minutes or so -- 4.5 minutes more than romney. but i think romney was better. less was more. on the side of the room, yes, sir. >> i was wondering, have you seen any differences in the senate races where republicans associate with the tea party? if not, how could turn out affect that? -- how could turnout affect that? >> there are a lot of important races in november, not just the

presidential. i do not know the answer. there are a lot of very close senate races, like charlie was talking about, in states that product -- in states that romney is probably going to win. missouri, north dakota, arizona. there are 4 states where democratic senate candidates are running very competitively with republican candidates in republican states. i just did a poll and joe connolly was ahead by two points. another truism of american politics is that people usually vote their party. i think that is going to be an interesting dynamic the next 4.5 weeks. massachusetts is a good example from the republican perspective. president obama is clearly going

to run well there. ken scott brown withstand the blue tide there? -- can scott brown withstand the blue tide there? you have a candidate in indiana who succeeded the incumbent in that the primary. you have a solid republican candidates. i was in arizona about a month ago, where democrats are competitive. it shows that these races are still fluid. you can be undecided and we can say that the race for undecided voters started yesterday. it will still be a couple of weeks before they really engaged. i do not know if people vote in races like a chess game. one from aisle a, one from aisle

b. one thing we have not talked about is the fundamental dissatisfaction americans have with government. president, senate, congress, and governor, how do they make those choices? >> i have to agree with fred, for the most part. you look at indiana. if lugar had won his primary, i know indiana would not have been on anybody's map. that is not how it is here it is a very tight race. fred alluded to the fact that, given that romney should win at state, i would be shocked if democrats are talking that up as a when already. these are races that will go down to the wire. there are a number of them throughout the country, whether it is tea party-related or not.

>> i can think of some exceptions, but unlike 2010, the tea party movement is not a top- of-mind concern for me right now. murdoch clearly identifies with the tea party movement. ted cruz, in texas, clearly associated with that movement. i do not consider todd a. can -- todd akin, he is more of a social conservative associated with the movement. most of the people i know before president obama was writ -- was elected were tea party republicans. i am not sure most of these faults voted for obama in 2008 and became t. party people in

2009 -- tea party people in 2009. it is not a thing i am looking at quite so much this time. to me, you see enormously- talented candidates and some that are not very good and whether they are catching on. two places that have surprised me is hawaii. i think the former governor is a terrific candidate. she has run a great campaign, done everything right. it is a pretty democratic place. does not seem to be happening. that surprised me. conversely, in connecticut, with linda mcmahon, my read was she

spent $70 million in the best republican year since 1994 and loses. i did not think she would have much of a chance. she is now running ahead. she is a better candidate and has run a better campaign. she has a democratic opponent who has turned out to be far more problematic and has some issues that a lot of us were not familiar with. finally, women voters held the wrestling thing against linda mcmahon so much last year. they seemed to have moved -- they seem to have moved beyond it. she is running very well and arguably, ahead. the tea party thing is not something that is on the top of my mind this year. let's go to this side of the room.

>> i wanted to ask about the 2004 analogy. you have not honed in on this. basically, we are headed for a 2004 election. not a very popular president, the elitist guy. the president was more of a man that you wanted to have a beer with. that changed last night, at least for a moment. romney was the one who was approachable and obama was the pedantic professor. how do you turn it back to that original dynamic? for romney, how do they continued down the same trajectory? for the first time, we knew he had a pulse as a living individual. [laughter] >> that is a great question. the thing that has been impressive for president obama,

in the polls, is his likability factor. it is not just, is the more down-to-earth? it is the whole obama package, the family. people connect with them, even anti-obama voters. i think the hardest thing to do is to advise a campaign that has been running for four years. i do not work for them. they no way more about what they are facing than i do. my advice to them would be very simple. they have a lot of things to worry about. i think he needs to close the deal. he needs to say, it is not about mitt romney anymore. what last night showed, it is about barack obama. i do not think they ever ran as if they had this in the bag. the analysts say, he was 20

points ahead and now it is a tie game. they always do this in a close election. as we head into novemberheadtheir number one imperative is to answer the question. -- as we head into november, their number one imperative is to answer the question. we have done it before and we can do it again. when they answer that question, that is when they will win the election? >> there is no question that the president is well-liked and there are also a lot of folks who do not care for him as much. a lot of people look at him and admire him. i admire him. he has played golf 104 times in the last four years. i would love to come anywhere

close to that. in terms of the romney campaign, i cannot talk to my partner in boston, who has been during the campaign, because i am doing a lot of work for the super pacs. whenever we talk, it is about the nationals, or his redskins and my giants. i will hold off on giving advice to the romney campaign. they have a lot of people giving them advice. i hope they are able to capitalize on this new-found momentum. >> to your point about 2004, i thought the obama campaign ought to be paying royalties to karl rove. i think they studied that 2004 race very closely. on certain things, applied it very well. for example, take one of your

opponents most important strengths and turn it into a weakness. john kerry's war record and turn it into a weakness. mitt romney's business experience, turn it into a weakness. after a certain point, do not blow your whole campaign war chest going after people who may never end up going your way. instead, go back and try to find out how to inflate the turnout among your base using technology and micro targeting. i think the obama campaign has done extremely well with that. 2004, if you are going to look at a model, that is one to look at in terms of the strategy employed in this campaign, at least on the obama side. >> i doubt that karl is going

every day to check his mail box for that check. [laughter] >> that is pretty safe. we are going to the middle and then we are going back over that way, to that side. >> i was just wondering, both candidates showed they are qualified to be president last night. i was wondering if you thought the demeanor was the main factor as opposed to the actual message that they were saying and the points they were making? they both had their own facts and statistics. i was wondering if you thought it was all about the way they came out and the energy they had or if what they were saying had as big an effect as the perception of how they are doing

and how excited they are to be there. >> the first observation is, clearly, the aarp has lowered its age. [laughter] it is a good thing that you identify yourself. image is important. the president heard himself with that last night. i do not think it romney side should think he will be like that in the next debate. they will look at that and say, that is not how we want to project. you go back to the tapes and break it down, romney had a lot of good, substantive points that he got across. from a policy standpoint, i thought it was pretty rich. when people were complaining that they got too deep into policy and too much in the woods, well, usually the

complaint is that there is not enough substance and it is too much style. from that standpoint, i thought it was a pretty good debate for the american people. it one difference was that clearly, mitt romney came fired up and ready to go. and obama almost looked like george h. w. bush, checking his watch. >> i do not think we saw the same debate, all of us. i do not think the president's demeanor was especially checked out. he talked longer than mitt romney, so clearly, he was engaged. why the analysis of the debate is the way it is, from my perspective, it is not so much how the president did. he did fine.

there were moments that he did well and there were moments that he did not do well. i think why last night was important was because of how well governor romney performed. as a political analyst, not putting on my partisan hat, to meet, -- to me, when you watch football games, you can see when they are trying to establish the run. even i can figure that out. i did not think he was going for likability. i thought he was going for what his strengths were and should be, the economy. i am focused on the economy. this is what i have done and this is what i will do. to me, from the moment of the debate, it was clear that that was what he was all about. he executed over the last 1.5

hours. >> it is the historic norm. if you are in the democrat in a competitive nomination, you run to the left and pivot back to the middle. romney ran unsuccessfully in 2008 for the nomination. he had been running to the right for four years. it becomes a condition that behavior. i think he was slow making the turn back and heading towards swing voters. i did not see him doing that effectively until his convention speech. and then really, really, really last night. last night was the first time this campaign that he struck me as the guy that i saw in 1994

who ran and served as governor. he was as close to mitt romney 1.0 as opposed to 2.0 or 30, back to the is. -- or 3.0, back to who he is. i think this is romney. i think he has been a longtime proponent of something else and has had a long time to get back to his roots. i wondered if he could get back and he did. obviously, a strong performance. there was somebody wasyes -- there was somebody, yes, sir. >> i am chris nelson. >> do i know you?

>> good to see you. speaking as an aarp member -- [laughter] long standing. people have been indicating that they are tired of this partisanship. may be unified government was a way to make things work together. it fits a little bit with what we have been talking about, making yourself more appealing to independents and things like that. is there any sense in thinking about how one candidate or the other can preach the patriotism of bipartisanship, the patriotism of -- or are we kidding ourselves? >> i think you saw some of that from governor romney last night when he talked about his experience in massachusetts,

when the legislature was 87% democratic and he worked with them every week, all the time. he managed to get his health care plan passed with only 2% dissension in the vote. i think you saw that from him. in terms of a broader this is not a knock, generally want what you don't have. when it's one-party control, you tend to have elections like 2006 or 2010, the party that controls everything gets slapped down. and then when you have what you have now, where you've got split control and the democrats have two-thirds and republicans have a third of washington, you hear a lost frustration and people say, boy, i think we would be better off with one party control until they get it. and then they say, you know, be careful what we wished for. >> going once, twice, three times. somebody in that cornerback

there. yes? >> eileen shleff, creative lions communications hispanic link news service. i have two comments. last night the substance plrks romney, throwing around a lot of comments, is that a good debate? no one had any plans and i have to say the president didn't take credit for some of the things he is doing. and my second question is minorities are very scared of the voter i.d. it's being glossed over that it has happened over and over in gkses and i would like you to comment on your polling and if you're involved with any hispanic and black leadership on what's being done to make sure the vote gets out. >> i would disagree with the first part where i thought it was one of the more substantive debates i have seen in a while. you know, and i was watching

some of the meters when romney was going through his five-point plan, his numbers went straight up. i thought there was, you know, i don't think it was vague. i don't think they were either vague. i think it was quite a bit of specificity and a lot of substance. but i don't know whether -- >> some of the most substantive debate i can remember in terms of policy and plans and everything in a long, long time. maybe the bar set so low it's not hard to get over it. i was kind of surprised. >> yeah. i guess what is substance these days? especially in the modern debate or communications. i guess my summation would be you had a very good sense of these two gentlemen's philosophy. and approach to government. and, you know, substance will save it for c-span.

>> you know, to the second part of your question, i guess my reaction is that -- i say this as someone who was born and raised in louisiana. i don't think there is any significance voter fraud in this country. widespread organized voter fraud. i think the bush justice department found 400 individual cases in eight years so that works out to one case per state per year which seems to me, you know, fairly light. so i think a lot of what's going on, do i think that a lot of republicans and conservatives, do i think if you gave them shots of sodium pentathol and wired them up to polygraph machine and asked them is there a significant vote fraud problem in this country, i think overwhelmingly they would say yes and pass that lie detector test. now i don't think there really is but i think they're convinced of it. but i think there is some political opportunism that's taking place out there as well.

and i don't really -- i mean if glen wants to jump in, he can. but i'm not sure i want to make republican consulting get up and say something to get him in trouble with folks in his party's base. but -- i know john fund at "the wall street journal" has -- is sort of leading a charge on establishing voter fraud as major problem. but to me it's kind of sporadic, episodic and sheriff's race someplace is probably more likely to be stolen then presidential or senator u.s. house race. >> what trace would that be, charlie? let's talk about that. >> i think it's sort of a solution in search of a problem. but i don't -- i think a lot -- i think a lot of the republican concerns are very, very insear but the florida situation,

florida republican party, i mean these kinds of things happen on both sides but i don't think it's -- i don't think there's a huge problem but at the same time, you know, in life most of us need i.d.'s to go about our daily lives and i think we ought to try to do something to get photo i.d.'s, official photo i.d.'s in the hands of voters to help them get to their lives up to and including voting. but anyway -- one last, i will throw a last question to the guys. >> thanks. looking back at the 2004 election and strategy president bush and his team implored, when you look at the cycle, we know it will be a close race. what i see on the ground game is the obama campaign thinking and really planning on the field a

lot more than governor romney's campaign has. an example is when you look at ohio, romney campaign has 36 field offices where as obama campaign has 96 field offices. same thing in virginia and other states. seems they were planning for a while if it's going to be a close race and at the end of the day comes down to the ground game, how do you move 3% to 5% vote out to the polls. can you talk a little bit about that? >> well, i think our size advantage was since january 2009, president obama pretty much knew he was going to be the democratic nominee in 2012. so he could plan for four years. and i think, you know look, i think we were all like really happy with the results of 2008. but 2008's don't come every year. i mean that was unique. i think they smartly recognized they can see four years away it

will be a close election and they planned ahead. i think any campaign again from city council to president, you have to do two things and two things well. you have to win the message war. that's why debates and strategy is important. but you also have to win the ground game. one thing they could do from the beginning was the ground game. you know, we all know where the battleground states are. i think one of the great things of 2008 from the democrats' perspective was not how many new and different people got engaged from plail process and i think the obama campaign clearly with the 96 field offices in ohio has done a very good job of keeping those people engaged. to help out with -- it's all four years of activity and planning for basically the 30-day sprint. i think that's hidden -- that's an advantage we have going into election day. >> i'm going to turn to glen in a second. just to echo or maybe take a

look slightly word it differently then what fred said, i think that the obama campaign, we know they've got the obama campaign has a fabulous ground game. we can't tell yet how good -- it may -- romney effort may be fabulous or not be or may be in between, we don't know that. but to echo something that fred said, the obama campaign has to have a better ground game because of the challenge they have motivating and getting young and latino voters out. don't think the ground game, thereby nice for the african-american community because i think the african-american community is motivated where they don't necessarily need organizational effort but young people and latinos it's a challenge. so it's essential for the obama campaign to have a very aggressive ground game because two groups were so important with victory last time and are

not going to be there on their own devices without a lot of motivational effort. i think they have to. >> that's an important point. a couple observations. i don't know how good the romney ground game will be. i know it will be miles ahead for 2008 for mccain. from that standpoint, you know, it's going to be just significantly better. secondly, fred made a good point which is the president actually, i disagree it wasn't january '09. he he would be unopposed or not seriously challenged when hillary said yes to the secretary of state job. i think they've had time to plan where as romney campaign, first had to win a primary than primary went on for the nomination went on for a long time. so that kind of cut into organizational effort. but i think you're going to see the best republican ground game,

i agree with charlie, republican motivation is sky high. i don't know they need quite the same ground game there. to me the romney campaign's challenge, republican side challenge, is more on winning the message side of things then turnout. republican turnout will be strong this time around. >> we have five minutes left. what i would like for glen and fred is take your campaign strategist's hat off and as to really smart guys, really smart students of public opinion who have been in washington for 25 years -- >> a while. >> yes, yes. >> looking at thinking about after the election and, yes, there are various permtations of what happens in the presidential race and senate race and house that are important, but thinking about things that need to happen

by december 31 in terms of physical cliff, thinking about things that may have to happen in terms of revenue, in terms of entitlement cuts, in terms of spending cuts, in terms of like the mega challenges facing us between now and december 31, and first part of next year and any possible grand bargain, just sore of what are your -- anything that's top of mind that you think of that is a challenge for either your party or other guys or just sort of wax on, on that for main or two each. >> i will quote a line from a movie that, you know look it happens every so of on. movie that should win best picture did not. and i will pull from a picture that did not. a movie that did not win best picture that year. i don't remember the specific year but it should have won best picture and that's "rocky 3." and that's when mr. t's

character was asked, clever lange was asked right before the fight, he said what's your prediction? and he growled into the camera, prediction? pain. [laughter] you know. look, there's -- there's a lot of things that can happen with the fiscal cliff and end of the year and everything like that. and i don't think that either harry reid or john boehner have any idea how it will come out. much less mitt romney or barack obama. so i'm not going to pretend other then it is going to be an all-consuming mess frankly i don't think the public is ready for, has any idea coming and no matter who wins the election, what happens between now and end of the year is going to -- i should say election and end of the year is going to be very dramatic for the country. >> let me refine this and maybe do fred first and then glen.

sometimes doing some things to entitlements and domestic spending is pretty inevitable and those are things a democrat will have to deal with and thinking about sort of the political consequences of that and on the republican side there's got to be more revenue. and defense is going to take some kind of a hit. that's going to be pretty ugly medicine for republicans. you know, fred, if you were sitting down with harry reid and nancy pelosi and steny hoyer or, glen, if you were sitting down with mitch mcconnell or glon boehner or eric cantor and they're about to go in the room and get a lot of blood on their hands and be ankle deep in blood

-- not to be too vivid -- what would you tell them to be mindful of? >> that's a very good question. and i think it's going to be hard to answer it for a lot of reasons. one of which the function of time. the other thing would be presumptuous of me. i mean, i will give you an answer but -- >> i have been presumptuous my entire career. >> enand i are smart guys -- glen and i are smart guys. well read. good taste in movies apparently. [laughter] and we know policy. but, look, we're also political people. we're paid to give political advice. my poose of advice would be don't have people like me in the room and, look, we are paid or not paid through sort of point out all of the different angles. i really believe you know, there

are times in our country where you're not looking for a, b, c, d from a to z. i'm reading a book on the 1850 compromise. it seemed people listened then. i think but putting my political hat back on what i would tell them to be mindful of is -- i'm going say this talking to people on the phone, talking to people in focus groups. i'm always, i'm very impressed and feel good as americans, when you get down to it, american people have common sense. they may not like some medicine. like with my kids. now they have new medicines where they put a sweetener in and have it all the time.

but they made need the sweetener but fundamentally, we all want to do the right thing. it sounds maybe mr. smithish but don't have people like us in the room and bank on the good common sense of the american people. >> yeah. i think that this is going to be one where nobody is happy with what comes out. you can't be. if it was easy, it would have been done by now. that's why they kept putting it off. it's damn hard. public opinion is going to be moving sharply. as long as everybody is unhappy, then it's probably a good outcome. >> i want to thank fred and glen, two of the best in the business. and technologies i think we all -- i have learned a lot and have some new thoughts and ideas that i have got from these guys and thank you united technologies for sponsoring this.

and "national journal." this is sort of routine things for a high quality smart publication like national journal atlantic media. thank you all for coming out. and see you next time. >> we need to tackle our nation's challenges before they tackle us. we need save and strengthen medicare and social security and we're putting ideas how to do that. we're not going to scare seniors but scare benefits for seniors and my generation so these promises are kept. >> they have laid out clearly, they say, what barack obama and joe biden did is they have endangered medicare. they stole money from medicare and they've done it to get obama care and all of this. you see in the ads and you hear in everything they say. nothing can be further from the truth. >> next thursday night october 11th, congressman paul ryan and vice president joe biden will face off in their only debate.

abc news martha raddatz moderates from center college in danville, kentucky. can you watch and engage with c-span with our live debate preview starting 7:00 p.m. eastern, followed by the debate at 9:00. your reaction, calls, e-mails and tweets at 10:30. follow live coverage on c 46 span, c-span radio and online on c-span.org. >> in just a few moments, a symposium on partisan politics and compromise. in an hour and a half, today's campaign events with president obama in colorado and mitt romney in virginia. after that we will reair the forum on the election outlook after the presidential debate. on "washington journal" tomorrow morning we will be joined by author and syndicated columnist ann coulter. we will discuss politics and presidential election with katrinaia vanden heuvel, editor of publisher of "the nation."

and take your question about manufacturing and u.s. economy. our guests are from the census bureau and "the wall street journal" reporter eric moran. "washington journal" is live every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> this is my fifth book but first book i have written with an actual sustained story line running through it. true story of basically ten days in london in 1854. it's a story of an inconsideredably terrifying outbreak that took place, outbreak of cholera. first half of the book is quite sobering and frightening in some ways as the outbreak devastates this neighborhood in the western edge of soho. it turns into a story because the events of this time are

central to solving the riddle of where the cholera was coming from and ultimately setting up a series of public health initiatives and other strategies for basically eliminating cholera as a threat from london and others around the world. >> steven johnson is our guest sunday taking calls, e-mails and tweets on "in depth." looking at science history, cyber world, popular culture and computer networking in politics. live at noon eastern on book tv on c-span2. >> next a symposium on partisan politics and compromise. this hour and a half event is hosted by the university of southern california schwarzenegger's institute for state and global policy. panelists include senator john mccain and former senator tom daschle. >> we all breathe the same air.

ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the chairman of the institute and the inaugural holder of the governor downey chair professor of state and global policy at u.s.e., governor arnold schwarzenegger. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you very much. thank you very much for the fantastic introduction. that's exactly the way i wrote it. [laughter] also thank you very much for your great partnership. one thing i wanted to correct what you said today is i did not win miss universe. different bikinis, waxing, all

of those things i did not win that competition. it's mr. universe. anyway, i want to say how enthusiastic i am about being in partnership with u.s.c. the president from the beginning was -- we were drawn to his creativity and vision. his extraordinary vision and commitment to u.s.c. and schwarzenegger institute is unmatched. to be honest also, great being the only one that speaks here with an accent so there's a big advantage we have here. as a matter of fact i'm looking forward to appearing together over and over all over the world leaving audience scratching their head and saying what the hell did i just say? seriously, though, he's a great leader. great leader for u.s.c. and we're very lucky to have you. [applause] thank you.

i also want to say thank you to bonnie reese, the new global director of the u.s.c. schwarzenegger institute. she's been by my side for decades helping to coordinate an after-school program, working on president's council and fitness anding adviser when i was governor and, of course, also the most important, being a great, great friend. so thank you very much to bonnie reese. thank you to professor nancy stout, esteemed economic director of the institute. as soon as i was told about a genius tax and budget professor u.s.c. stole away from northwestern, i knew we had to have her. so it's great to have you on the team, professor. thank you very much. [applause] also huge thank you to provost beth garrett, who was an absolute joy to work with throughout the entire process.

her love and passion and interest in this institute from day one. she was also very interested in having this institute right here. so thank you very much. and finally i want to say thank you to dean jack naught and whole prize school of public policy team for their great support. i mean jack isn't just a genius, he's an expert in breaking through bureaucracy and he believes in action so he's a perfect partner for our institute. thank you, jack. also want to say thank you to all of the panelists here. i know they're all busy and important people and have taken the time to come here from all over the country to participate in this panel discussion. this very important panel discussion. let's give them a big hand and say thank you.

also big thank you to the students here today. i'm very sorry that 300 had to be turn add way. such enormous interest but the way we selected the people to come in here, students was body fat. anyone below 10% body fat was allowed to come in here. only way i could come up with a way to select people. anyway, great to have you all here. i stand here today full of hope. i look around this room and i can feel the promise and potential. it is energizing, fantastic to see the great enthusiasm. the day we launched u.s.c. schwarzenegger institute. this isn't just a day for celebration. this is a day for commitment, it is a day for promise and debate and discussions and brainstorming. it's a date for hard work. because we're going to have a lot of fun at the same time. don't worry about that. as governor i must tell you i

broke a lost rules. i never thought about things in the partisan way. insiders in sacramento could never understand that. for instance when i tried to pass health care reform they immediately said you're republican, what are you doing? you can't do that and i didn't pay any attention to them. when i hired a democrat as my chief of staff, they said you can't do that. you're a republican governor. what are you doing with a democrat? i didn't listen. half of my appointments were democrat and they said you're republican, you can't do that. i learned the old way doing things didn't work so i broke the rules. i broke the rules because they were working for the people of california and status quo just did not serve the people well. in the process i discovered my own rules. the rules i use to govern and those are very rules that would direct the vision of this institute. first, the best policies are

written in the absence of fear. same stories of the political arena is packed and filled with fear. always worried so much about the poll numbers or election coming up, making sure they get re-elected. i believe it takes true courage to create meaningful action. second, closer you are to the people, the more actions. you can't just rely on big national governments because many times big means slow. states and cities of people can move much faster. and never forget the power of the private sector, nonprofit sector and economic sector all of them together with the public sector can really come up with great solutions. finally, no ideology has the monopoly on solutions. i mean you can run an election from the right and from the left, yes. but you can't run a state if you're obsessed with ideology. so this is the famework of the schwarzenegger institute that we will use as we focus on policies

to improve the people's lives. [applause] now, there was no better place to continue our work then right here at u.s.c. academic window to the world. us just supporters of los angeles exports goods around the world, u.s.c. constantly exporting brilliant and innovative ideas around the globe. u.s.c. has gloried past but also envisions a path into the future, faculty and students learn to innovate and improve and experiment and take risks to response to the new circumstances and challenges. in all fields, u.s.c. research has the respect of the world because u.s.c. never fails to bring the best minds together without cares for ideology or ways of the past. this is rightfully a proud institution and i am so proud to

have you as my partner. [applause] i assume my chair at the governor downey state and policy, i cannot help but think of governor downey's vision and not only helping found this great university but also his vision as governor of the state of california. governor downey took on special interests way back in 1860's when they tried to monopolize the san francisco waterfront. he signed also against many of thinks fellow democrats when he placed california formally behind president lincoln in the union in the outbreak of the civil war. his appearances in support of his policies were also known to cause such passion that fistfights would break out in various different places. so he could literally say that he was the first action star governor of california.

i also love that he was the first immigrant to lead our great state sofment we have a lot in common. so for me it's a true honor to serve in this role. i look forward to the schwarzenegger institute to help preserve and grow the california dream that brought governor downey and me to this great state. the goal of our institute is not only to share what i have learned when i was governor and what i did when i was governor but to continue to work that was unfinished. every governor arrived in office with a long list of ambitious goals. if you finish half of them, you're lucky. i was one of the lucky ones. the promise because so many things were unfinished i would continue to work after my term ends to give back to california and to give back to the world and that's exactly what we will do here at the schwarzenegger institute. my term as governor came to an

end but people's work never stops. the day we begin that work by discussing some of lessons that shaped my time in office. foremost among my lessons was the best ideas on require political courage. schwarzenegger institute can and must be a mega phone for those ideas. we must give a voice to the true reformers who are too often silenced in the halls of power. status quo is truly a powerful monster that resists change at all times. you can produce the best ideas on earth but if you don't have political courage, you have nothing. words without action are just poetry. to use a very scholarly phrase, meaningful change takes balls. [laughter] that's my quote.

you learn that lesson over and over when i was governor of california. let me give you an example. when we took on redistributing reform, people said, arnold, you're crazy. it's never going to happen. quit while you're ahead. the corrupt system of gerrymandering in the state has been in plus for over 200 years and politicians would never give up the power of drawing their own district lines. ab wear tax on both sides. they spent millions against us and redistricting reform failed five times. but no one could scare us or discourage us. we had the courage to keep fighting because we knew that's what it takes to create real change. you know something t. paid off. in the sixth time, we succeeded. so this year for the first time in 200 years, our politicians can be in districts that were drawn fairly by the people, not party bosses in smoky rooms.

not by special interests and not by the politicians who only care about their career. so as you can see, political courage is not political suicide. another lesson that i have learned is, the power of regional governments. regional governments have tremendous power and why is this important? so many times you see cities and counties and states waiting for the federal government to do something. to create policy, to make a move. but california, we didn't wait. we didn't wait for washington nor international treaty and environment or anything like this. we just moved forward. i remember washington was never that enthusiastic about infrastructure. you know how much we are falling behind in infrastructure nationwide compared to the rest of the world.

but we in california we said yes to infrastructure. and now we can see construction in schools and roads and affordable housing and other projects all over the state of california. washington said no to stem cell research. imagine, we said yes. and we invested $3 billion. as a matter of fact, right here at u.s.c. we have one of the great centers for staple-cell research, and they are drawing money for those $3 billion for their center. washington said no to our landmark climb change law. million solar roofs, list goes on and on. we said yes, yes and yes. and we moved forward. some of the most powerful solutions come from local government and also grass roots. people power. not from washington or paris or moscow or beijing. finally, i learned quickly that

a post partisan way of governing is the most effective way. if you believed you could only use the ideas of the right and left, you would never be able to move forward. you would never go and be successful. we saw that in california and in other states. we have seen post partisanship work all over the world. here the u.s.c. schwarzenegger institute, we will bring the most brilliant ideas and most solutions to the forefront no matter what the ideologies behind it. that is our mission. we will research with all of the brain power that we can muster and will produce solution that's can be used not only on this state but all over the world. this isn't just an idea institute although we will debate and research the best ideas but this is an action institute to protect and export the california dream to inspire local action and political courage based not on ideology

but on solutions for the people. we want to make sure our politicians become public servants, not party servants or special interest servants. i'm most proud, of course, when we talk about this event here today that we will bring u.s.c. students into this mission. this is so important that they're part of it in every step of the way. let us inspire them to become a new generation of leaders. let us harness their great power and bring them into the process. let us bring the poem sui in grave, young minds. ladies and gentlemen, here at the schwarzenegger institute we will have the vision and courage to change and to improve the world. because we all know the people's work never stops. thank you very much, thank you. [applause]

thank you. now we want to bring out two of the most powerful women, and i'm talking about bonnie reese and nancy stout. please welcome both of them. thank you. >> thank you very much, governor. thank you very much and welcome to our inaugural symposium. today is wonderful event for u.s.c. and new schwarzenegger institute for state and global policy. when i think about u.s.c. and schwarzenegger institute working together, i know great things are in store for us. collaboration is outstanding for so many reasons because primarily schwarzenegger institute will foster teamwork

and new partnerships with various centers and institutes in and around u.s.c. and other universities and around the world. this inaugural symposium marks the beginning so many alliances and relationships. today is special not only because of the incredible people who are participating as panelists and audience members but because today will showcase what the institute will do for years into the future. we will collaborate with people inside and outside u.s.c., discuss the critical issues of the day, debate ideas and learn. we will learn from each other. when provost beth garrett let me know the schwarzenegger institute was coming to u.s.c., i was more than a little thrilled to be invited to join the institute team. why is the schwarzenegger institute so exceptional, so distintive and so unrivaled? first the institute is committed to changing the way we talk about policy and changing the way we talk about politics. we should passionately hold our

beliefs. we should actively be involved. we should help shape policy outcomes but come to the table and learn from each other and collaborate. not only do we have a civic duty to engage but civic dute to engage in a productive way, post partisan way. i'm excited to be academic of director of the institute whose mission it is to foster this post partisan behavior in policy circles, in classrooms and in the public at large. the schwarzenegger institute created an all together different sore of team. the chairman of the institute, governor schwarzenegger and now my colleague, professor schwarzenegger, will play an active role in the institute's operations. governor schwarzenegger will not only help to shape major events in policy discussions such as those that have taken place today but he will literally be

working on the ground here on u.s.c.'s campus. one example, professor schwarzenegger will play a key role in the class i'm teaching of the students in the class, all of whom are here, will be presenting their projects to him some time soon. as a long-term member of the academic community, i can tell you that we gauge success by looking to three criteria, publications, student involvement and community service. well, professor schwarzenegger has just published a book. he will be involved in classroom activities and hosting this inaugural symposium. he might already be ready for a promotion. as i mentioned most have an ack demme director but being ambitious and determined the institute went one step further in appointing a global director bonnie reese. wow, this appointment has changed the nature of the organization. it's affected activities, our strategies and plans. having a person such as bonnie reese, who's been successful lawyer, successful entrepreneur,

senior adviser to the governor, secretary of education and this is to name just a few of her achievements ensures our team thinks big, bold and gets things done. case in point, we announced the creation of the schwarzenegger on august 2, and it's now 54 days later, here we are all 750 of us. before i sit down, i want to make a comment about the class that i'm teaching. this class grew out of the role of institutes and role of young people. we think young people not only help shape our conversations but they're important because they will be the next leaders. to foster the role of young people, we created a class called leadership for a post partisan era. the students in the class organized themselves into thinking teams to discuss critical issues. for example, chelsea wood is a master student in the price school of public policy. she grew up here in los angeles

not far from here. she noted her neighborhood was and still is virtually devoid of healthy food options. in her word a food wasteland. chelsea and her teammate andrew christopher helped to raise awareness through sophisticated use of social media and devised solutions to put an end to the so-called food desert. two master students from china are studying here at u.s.c. calia and sojuia are interested in young people to learn not just u.s.c. but universities around the world. together they're writing a scene play and shooting a film about the importance of learning abroad, sharing ideas and becoming global leaders. this will be on youtube soon. each of the students along with all of the other students in my class will have a chance to showcase on campus and to new professor, professor schwarzenegger. i'm absolutely thrilled to be teaching this class with the students and be part of this

leadership team housed in our new schwarzenegger institute. i'm positive our future will be exciting, productive and unrivaled. i would like to end by welcoming you to our inaugural symposium. i have no doubt our conversation today will be spectacular. i will turn to the institute's global director and my friend bonnie reese. [applause] >> thank you so much, nancy thun to arnold for committing his time, resources, energy and talent to creating an institute that will be engaged in critically important policy work that will impact the lives of people in california, in america and across the globe. i can think of no more perfect partner then u.s.c., who reach is global and whose vision and ideals are huge. while arnold thanks u.s.c. president and provost, i want to also thank them. for the past month since i moved

into my u.s.c. offices, this campus has become my home away from home. when you're on the outside of u.s.c., you hear about how they're one of the best universities in the world. when you become part of their community, you understand why. some of the best and brightest from california and all regions of the world, u.s.c. creates a culture that reflects their belief that for their students, our nation and our world, the possibilities are limitless. to fulfill this promise to u.s.c. students, smartest, most committed professors, researchers and scholars comprised of faculty and staff and are already engaged in supporting the work of our institute. i also want to thank max and beth garrett for their wisdom in asking dean jack naught of the price school of public policy if they would provide a home for our institute. another brilliant and perfect decision. jack and the price school of public policy are perfectly

aligned with the grand vision of arnold and institute. bringing the best thought leaders in public policy both academic and real world together to educate our students and not just provide thoughtful understanding of the policies of our day but focus as well on turning it into action. arnold and u.s.c. leadership expect great thing it's this institute and we fully intend to deliver. in slightly over one month from when we announced the formation of the institute to today's inaugural event, we put together world class board of advisers and academic council. we have promotional materials and beb site focused on explaining our mission and engaging both students and others to join with us. we have established collaborations with other organizations and leaders who share our goals and doing meaningful work in the areas we will focus on. i want to thank the remarkable men and women serving on our

board of advisers and serving on our academic council from other respected universities around the world and thank those of them that are here with us today . our academic director nancy stout, who teaches at the law school assembled our great academic council and is also fulfilling the mission of the institute by teach ago class in post partisanship at the public policy school. the institute has only two full-time people -- me and the extraordinary amanda, my right and left hand. so it is important that i acknowledge that all we have done in just over a month including creating this great symposium and all we will continue to do is only possible because of the support of u.s.c. and price school. so a special thank you to jen, regina nordall, carol rush, january peterson, heidi row sano and big thank you as well to the

u.s.c. event team, public safety team and u.s.c. communications team. to all of you, thank you so much. we are both proud and excited -- thank you. [applause] we are both proud and excited for the leaders here gathered for today's important conversations and overwhelming outpouring of interest and attending from students and nonstudents including so many leaders from business, nonprofits and governments around the world. today is a beginning but it's also a continuation. having served as both senior adviser and secretary of education to governor schwarzenegger, running this institute is not just an opportunity to continue so many of the great initiatives that arnold in california were at the forefront of but an opportunity for so many committed public servants who worked on those initiatives to see their legacy continue. many of those people are here

today, including the governor's chief of staff susan kennedy, many cabinet secretaries, press secretaries, legislative deputies and top advisers and i thank them all for helping us continue this important work. today's symposium is intended to start conversations that advance our mission. the more than panel is about our belief that our country and our world is at its best when our leaders put people over politics. we are grateful for the caliber of internationally respected u.s.c. leaders who you will shortly hear from. institutes intends to continue to bring great leaders together regardless of party affiliation and to support what arnold referred to in his 2007 inaugural speech as post partisanship. we will work to enact policies to promote post partisanship and explore causes of political portlandarization that seems to keep our leaders from working to solve the biggest problems. issues like redistricting, open

primaries, campaign finance and impact of special interests and role of news media and internet will all be explored. in preparing for today, we reached out to dozens of leaders. while unable to join us today, they all enthusiastically express support for this mission. christie todd whitman, evan bayh, conde rice, henry sis nerous, dianne feinstein, erskine bowles and alan simpson are some of the great leaders who agree other nation is at its best when our leaders work together. and we will work together with all leaders in advancing post partisanship and supporting a climate where our leaders work together to solve our problems. our lunch discussion today reflects our principle of the institute that local solutions best address global challenges. whether by citizens, organizations or states. our policy focus for that discussion is one that's near and dear to arnold, california and frankly billions of people

across the globe, environment, energy and climate. and our afternoon panel reflects our belief in the power of people and innovation. arnold may have led the eighth largest economy on earth but he understands rarely does great innovation come from government. as governor he reached out to innovators and leaders in the private sector to get best ideas for california and believed in the power of private and public partnerships. institute is committed to commit to continue this philosophy and seek out support and convene best innovators to help us find real world solutions to the great public policy challenges we face. today we have selected a panel of media leaders representing film, television and music for our afternoon discussion. these leaders in this industry are among great innovators of our time. they're also in an industry that more than any other industry impacts popular qullchur and is often specifically targeted important culture issues.

archie bunker and "all in the family" made us reflect on bigotry. "will & grace" and "glee" on sexual orient ace and most recently aaron sorkin and "newsroom" have us talking about the role of news media in covering politics. of course, we also recognize the power of celebrity. sometimes more successful used then others but successful efforts include the great work of sean penn with "haiti, george clooney's work with the sudan and brad pitt's work with helping sustainably rebuild new orleans. i'm compelled to also add my work over 20 years ago running the earth communications office which used the power of media to do large public awareness campaigns on environmental issues. i'm compelled not to share my credentials and expertise in this area but to share it with you how even then big-time action star arnold schwarzenegger supported smart environmental causes like recycling.

[laughter] for those of us who can't read this poster, it is of arnold as commando saying, i recycle more with my pinky then you do with both hands. recycle now and thank me later. so, ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for being here. we hope you enjoy the day and we encourage you to stay involved in the work of the institute. now it's my great pleasure to get the morning panel discussion going by introducing the moderator, who is a hero of mine. with over 40 years broadcasting this trail blazing journalist is political commentator for abc news and also does political analysis for npr. i wanted to make sure a proper introduction of my hero was done so i asked her what two things she was most proud of, thinking in might be wiing three emmys, being inducted into the

broadcasting hall of fame, being listed as one of the 50 greatest women in the history of broadcasting, maybe writing her best-selling books or maybe being named as living legend by the library of congress. but no, this great woman said the two things she's most proud of is, first, having raised two fabulous human beings who are now raising their own fabulous human beings. and second, taking a trip first to indonesia, where it's over 100 degrees then to pakistan, where it was 25 degrees and where she had to be prepared to stay in tents and go to embassy parties and she was able to do this trip all with car question-on luggage. [laughter] ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the amazing cokie roberts. [applause] >> thank you, thank you. this is an exciting day and we

will get right to it. i know you have been really waiting to hear from this panel and we have a great group of men who are -- [laughter] -- who have held many different offices at different levels and are from across the political spectrum. so we will just start right off by introducing them. first former governor charlie crist of florida. governor crist served as a republican governor of florida. [applause] after being in statewide office, and he was republican governor, become independent, last seen speaking at the democratic convention. [applause] former majority leader tom daschle of south dakota. tom was a member of the house -- [applause] -- before he became a member of

the senate. former -- current -- current, this is the brave man here, current senator john mccain, republican. who -- who again served in our military, served in the house, served in the senate. of course, was the republican nominee for president. you have already met governor schwarzenegger. i toll him -- i told governor schwarzenegger that in fact the context for miss universe is considerably harder then the contest for mr. universe. but he is, of course, our former california governor and convener here at this wonderful institute, which is going hold so much promise. former governor house member and member of the cabinet tom ridge, republican from pennsylvania. [applause] and also distinguished member of

the military. and former house member governor and member of the cabinet democrat bill richardson of new mexico. [applause] and i'm going to join these gentlemen now. i toll them if they all sat down first, i would be able to figure out which one was my chair. [laughter] and so governor schwarzenegger, you talk about post partisanship. but i have come to think of it as post office bipartisanship, which is why i think senator mccain you're the brave man here . senator daschle, you work now with senator frist on a variety of projects. he was majority leader and minority leader why you also held those jobs. but it doesn't happen very often in before people leave office.

we have wonderful examples from our former presidents, you know, president -- bill frist campaigned against you but he didn't defeat you, you know. president ford and carter worked together so incredibly closely and president cart irdefeated president ford. i rb interviewing interviewing president george h.w. bush and he said, well, i can't imagine clinton and i will ever work that closely together. a few years later barbara bush was refering to bill clinton as her fifth son. and -- now he works with -- with president george w. bush as well. and the time i was interviewing president bush is when i was doing a series of pieces on former presidents and constitution. in that same set of interviews, i interviewed president ford. the last time i saw him.

and he said you know, cokie, i just don't understand what's going on in washington. after his many years in the house of representatives. when i was minority leader of the house, and your father, my father, hail boggs was majority leader of the house, he said when we were minority and majority leader, we would get in a cab together and go down to the press club or someplace and say what are we going to argue about? and he would say, that is a legitimate debate. we genuinely disagreed about means to an end. and it was part zing. for heaven's sakes, we were the leaders of our parties. then we got in the cab and be best friends and go back to the hill and be able to be civil with each other, have a drink together and, you know, be very good friends. they were such good friends that mrs. ford asked me to be a ule gist at her funeral, which was a little scary except she told me

exactly what to say, so it made it easier. so now that's not even close. i mean, there's nothing like that going on in washington today. i have my own ideas about why but i'm much more interested in hearing years. so i think i will start with you, senator daschle, because you are in this position now where you didn't do it inside and you are doing it outside. why? >> first, i disagree a little bit with the premise we didn't do it. john i worked together on mccain-feingold, patients' bill of rights. a lot of projects we worked on together and i'm proud of the fact we did. it's harder to do that today in part i think because of the airplane. the airplane has allowed people to leave on thursdays, come back on tuesdays and they're not in washington as much as they used to be. when your father was there, they spent the week there. you don't have the opportunity to bond and develop relationships these days like

you used to. media is totally different now then it was back then. back then you had walter conkrite. today you have people on fox news and msnbc that are not as much referees as participants in the political process. and that process is really caused i think a i think it is also in part because back in the old days, did not switch back and forth between majority and minority that frequently. that used to be -- and being in the majority was an opportunity to begin to implement your agenda. today winning the agenda is the end in and of itself. do not want to give credit to the other side. there is a lack of willingness to cooperate in part because it might help them keep or win the majority. not to mention the race for money. we will spend over $9 billion this year at the federal level. four years ago, we spent a little over $3 billion.

in part because of citizens united, but in part because the money is just there. we have all the factors pulling themselves out in ways that we did not see a few years ago. >> senator mccain, do you see that inside? you have seen the difference is, when you first came, and now. could you work with, daschle today? >> sure. i'd meant to just thank governor schwarzenegger for inviting me and indulge me for a moment, my hundred-year-old and -- mother and wife both attended this institution. both of them -- one was a delta gamma and the other was a theta, both high academic standards. [laughter] murase also, -- may i say also, i believe that what we may come out of this is because of the

approval rating of congress is 11%, in case you missed it. we're down. >> none of them show up? >> i am trying to meet somebody below 11%. i would like -- in that 11%. i would like to ask them what they approve of that we are doing. [laughter] by the way, four former governors here. it is wonderful. there was a story of the chow line in the state prison. one inmate says, the food was a lot better here when you were governor. [laughter] >> that was in illinois. >> i tried it in illinois. >> i am relieved that we do not have a current governor of louisiana in jail. >> i think all of us in

politics crave approval. that is part of that we want to do a job that constituents approve of. the high disapproval rating, if it stays the same, it will result in a political upheaval of some kind. i'm not sure, but neither party can govern and that low of and approve or rating without something happening sizable. i think the other thing is that this fiscal cliff, and i know we will be talking about it, it dominates the news, i do not know how we avoid it, but i think it is conscionable that the markets will start to react -- possible the the markets will react if we start to see sequestration, the bush tax cuts, the debt limit, all of these things that go to make up the fiscal cliff, i think there is a realization about the damage it could do to america's economy.

it may force section on the part of the congress and the president -- force action on the part of the congress and the president. this is the most clear campaign i have observed. i still believe there is going to be a strong motivation of us, for a variety of motivations, maybe not all good or all bad, to try to resolve this issue for the sake of the country. maybe i am digging for the pony, but i believe that that has got to happen. there is ample pressure. i will say that this majority leader acted in a very bipartisan fashion quite often, and quite often in a partisan fashion, but there is precedent for it, all the way back to ronald reagan and tip o'neill when social security was going to go broke. it is not as if it has never happened before. it has to happen. >> do you think ronald reagan could be nominated as a

republican candidate today, governor crist? >> it would be very difficult. i grew up admiring ron reagan. one of the things i admire most about him was his style, his kindness, his grace. i think we need to have more of that back into our national dialogue in politics. an ability to get a rock -- a long, cooperate, and respect each other. without that, it will be difficult to move things forward. but i am an optimist like senator mccain, and i believe we will get there because we have to. i want to thank governor schwarzenegger for inviting us all and having the leadership to do this. thank you, arnold. >> secretary richardson, do you think in johnson could be nominated as democratic candidate to president of the united states today? >> i do think so. the moderate wing, the moderate clinton-johnson -- i want to make one point, despite senator

mccain's joke about governors. [laughter] i noticed arnold said something about body mass in his opening speech. the four governors here, and i do not mean to disparage what is happening in washington, we as governors, and i hope the schwarzenegger institute does not abandon states and local government and county commissions. we have to work together with the legislature. we have to balance the budget or we go to jail. maybe that is how some got there. so by partisanship -- bipartisanship athens. i worked with arnold when we were governors on clean energy. on climate change. we were ahead. immigration -- with charlie on health care.

by the way, john and i came to the congress, said the same time. we worked on navajo issues and creating a federal boxing commission and native american issues with tom daschle. i think this is a good issue -- panel. the states, there are laboratories ofbi partisanship -- bi partisanship that the government can learn from. maybe this institute can figure that out. >> pick up on that. it is true. governors are practical, they have to do that, but you ought to have the national governors' association where you do seem to come together more -- you also have the national governors' association, reducing to come together more. >> when you give responsibility as an executive, i say this, having served 12 years in congress and having the great opportunity to serve as governor for six years, nine months, and

five days. [laughter] as bill pointed out, i really think that at the end of the day, i read the mission statement for the institute -- governor schwarzenegger talked about health care and energy and the environment and the fiscal cliff. then he talked about political reform. unless we deal with politically these other issues, so critically important -- they are not republican or democrat, they are american issues, problems that need to be solved. we need to solve them. the political dialogue is a real problem. the coarseness -- it has been aggravated by the media. you do not turn on the tv in order to be informed or educated. you normally turn on to your favorite station to have your views reinforced. i think about the declaration of

independence. we ought to have a recent -- decent respect for the opinions of mankind. we have lost a decent respect that both sides should give to one another. if you take a look of the declaration of independence, the first amendment, speech, assembly, etc. -- they wanted a marketplace of ideas. is about tolerating the other person's point of view. it does not mean you have to agree with it. it means to tolerate it. i think executive experience, having been in congress for 12 years, i give you speeches, but i was never once responsible for articulating a vision and then finding the number of seats in the house to deliver it. at the end of the day, the leadership must come from the men and women who have been given broad responsibility, the senate leaders, house leaders, and governors. is there really people to stand

up and say, and off is enough. it is intolerable. i'm going to predict -- i'm not as optimistic as my friends. the coarseness of this language -- is much easier to be an ideologue than it is to be someone who drives a compromise. it takes a lot more energy, more intellectual thought, a lot more leadership, to bring disparate groups together then to say my way or the highway. governors have to do that. >> governor schwarzenegger, you, as governor, what i was getting at with those questions about president reagan and president johnson -- the polarization of the parties. the numbers are pretty stark. in 1980, 31% of democrats identified themselves as conservatives. now is 18%. 42% of republicans identified themselves as conservative. now a 63%.

you found, as governor here, dealing with your own party, you were dealing with such polarization that it was very difficult to get things done with them. >> yes. california is the state where the majority are democrat, but it does not mean that the only republican sitting up there in sacramento, the governor's office, that you cannot get things done. you are forced to sit down with the other side. there are a lot of issues i could deal with with my republican friends. they're a lot of issues with the democrats. whenever you work with but we -- democrats, republicans haiti. one of the work with republicans, at the democrats' hate you. is not to win a popularity contest that you go to sacramento or washington. you have to think of one thing -- what does the state need? how you serve people the best way? you can throw around statistics

and how things changed. no matter what it is, you have to always think about how the issue of the people, our political leaders, how do they not become party servants or servants of the special interests, but become public servants, work for the people, for the best of people's interest. i did many times -- i worked on health care reform, like a mentioned in the speech. i would work with the democrats because it was not something republicans were interested in. it was ok. then i worked on some fiscal responsibility to treat a rainy day fund. i worked with republicans and democrats. it is something -- somehow we got a lot of things done, from rebuilding our infrastructure to reforms, political reforms, all the environmental accomplishments, from reducing greenhouse gas. it was a long list of things.

it was still on behalf of the things and set out to do, you had to bring in both parties together, but i never looked at the democrats as villains. i was married to a democrat for 25 years. i always had the utmost respect for someone who came from the democratic party and said, here is my idea. i would say, this is a great idea. i think this is a better idea than i had. let's put the two ideas together and find a compromise. you cannot just do it your way or the highway. i did that. i tried that in 2005. through the special election -- i said, here is my way or nothing. it failed miserably. i knew from firsthand that that approach does not work. the people of california, they overwhelmingly reelected the next year. the issues were on the ballot because i was inclusive and

reaching across the aisle, to democrats and republicans together. no matter what time it is, 100 years ago, 10 years from now, i think the key thing is that you have to encourage -- have the courage to reach across the aisle. i mentioned in my speech political courage is not political suicide. senator mccain is a perfect example. he worked together with teddy kennedy and senator daschle, so many other people. we have seen his political courage. there are not enough at stories on the media done on the people who have political courage. they always want to look for the negative. >> it has become more so -- political suicide than it used to be. part of it is the drawing of district lines of that everybody agrees with you and the only way you can get in trouble is to not be pure enough, not liberal enough or conservative enough'.

the challenge to face in your last senatorial election -- a challenge from the right, which was kind of the fact highly than behave in the senate to some degree. we have seen that with both parties. it seems to be getting worse and harder rather than people making it easier. >> let me make two points. one, let's not forget that in 2009 and 2010 the democrats had the whole majority of both houses of congress and the presidency. they were veto-proof. we had stimulus packages, obamacare, dodd-frank. who believesybody the institutions are still not too big to fail -- they had to bang years. they had the overwhelming majority for two years. the ram things through, with all due respect. we were never consulted about obamacare or the stimulus.

we were never consulted about dodd-frank. we all have to work together. we sure as hell did not between 2008 and 2010. then, the 2010 elections, they were rejected. we gained the majority in the house. if we had not had three bad candidates in three spring states, we probably would have gained the majority in the united states senate. when we look back at all this polarization and failure to work together, nobody tried to work with me for two years. the second point is what tom was on. citizens united, very quickly, russ feingold and i went over that case before the night states supreme court. i have never seen such in i e failure to understand what the realities of political campaigns were about then was displayed in those arguments. the united states supreme court by a 5-4 decision said money is

free speech. isn't that interesting? that money is free speech. so we have seen these floodgates' unleashed. intelligently, the obama campaign spent hundreds of millions up -- hundreds of millions of dollars while the republican campaigns went on, the vilifying mitt romney. i can show you the chart of the unfavorable crack as the attack ads went on. i think that may have -- unfavorables as the attacks went on. i think that contributed to the polarization. hundreds of millions of dollars spent -- $4 billion, -- $9 billion, 70% of it is on negative advertising on both sides. then obviously it will have an effect on the electorate. all i can say is that there was polarization and it did not work. -- i will not go revise history, but i believe there will be

major scandals, major scandals, the history of this country has been corruption, reform, corruption, reform. there are too many billions of dollars washing around our political campaigns. then i hope we will reform after that. [applause] >> the polarization you are talking about is being driven by ads, that is true, but also look at the numbers. when you were all in the house -- you four. >> right after the spanish- american war. [laughter] >> i had been covering it when you got there. in 1982, there were three -- 344 members of the house out of 435 whose voting records were between that of the most liberal republican and the most conservative democrat. now there is one. in the senate, it was the same thing.

there was about 1/3 of the voting records of the members of senate between the most liberal republican and the most conservative democrat. in 2010, the "national journal" ran these numbers -- it was zero between the most liberal republican, and the us conservative democrat, also gone after this election. this polarization has been going on long before this election and long before 2008-2009. again, governor crist, you have been railing about how your party left you. a lot of democrats feel exactly the same way -- what now? what you do? >> that is a great question. for me, the experience i had, i

supported john mccain. he is a great man and a true american hero. >> why i want florida in the primaries. seriously speaking you want it because of you. -- seriously. you won it because of you. >he comes to florida to talk about the recovery act, the stimulus. his office invited me to greet him in fort myers. i did so. i introduced him when he came to speak there. literally embraced him. as a governor, i saw a budget. i knew what was happening to our economy. it was going off a if. i was very delighted, frankly, as a governor, knowing you have to balance the budget or go to jail, that we would get assistance. a lot of those for the taxpayer

dollars would come back to florida and help us out of this thing and help our teachers, our police, our fire fighters to stay on the job. when i did that, embrace the president, at that time -- he was the president of the united states. the way my mother and father raise my three sisters and myself was that you respect others. you do unto others, particularly, by the way, if that person happens to be the president of the united states of america. [applause] the notion that some in my former party would sustain that active decency -- would so that act of decency, being nice to somebody like that and being chastised for it is exactly what we need to stop doing. governor ridge said it.

we need to respect each other. we do not need to agree -- that is okay. senator mccain mentioned it earlier. ronald reagan and tip o'neill -- they probably did not agree on much of anything, and yet they were able to have an affable relationship and be decent to one another and not to reach other down in the process. we have to get back to that and keep talking about this. that is why again, governor schwarzenegger, i want to thank you for getting started. if we do not do a bill not happen. >-- it will not happen. >> i recently spoke to the senate press secretaries. the two senators from pennsylvania, senator toomey and senator casey, had the two men themselves and their staff -- had a softball game. they had a good time. they went out and place of all, had a few beers. they put it up under facebook pages and both of them told me

that they got absolute vituperative remarks from their supporters, saying, how could you possibly consort with the enemy like that? the senator from their own state. you would think that there would be a certain common interests here. but that was the reaction of the voters. bill, you had your hand up -- anybody who wants to take this, take a. >> i would say, i think what is happening now is that you have a combination of for a period of 30 years where parties have lost so much of their power and their authority. what has happened, in the name of reform, and churchill once said that the best argument against democracy is five minutes with the average voter -- [laughter] whether or not you agree with that, the fact is that what is happening is the grassroots politics that has taken over the party's -- at grassroots politics, the interest groups

become stronger and stronger at the expense of the party and blend into that money, you have an entirely different dynamic, where people do not understand what it really takes necessarily to try to work with the legislative process to get the common ground. you have to bang very distinct camps. you have a camp that says, i want my member of congress or center to find common ground. that is my all time -- i am sure people are like that. >> poling says it is the vast majority of people. >> there is another group that is not the majority, but they are a very vocal minority -- i want my congressman to stand for -- firm, not to compromise, do not give an inch. more and more of the people who they elector coming to washington with that attitude, that they cannot give an inch because their constituents, the people they believe are elected them, all that you so strongly. that is unfolding.

one thing that comes that brings us together -- that is a crisis of the magnitude of 9/11 or the anthrax attack in my office. for a short period of time when we are under a physical threat, we will get on the steps. people seem to be willing to be more accommodative. that dissipates very quickly. >> debbie giffords, in your state which shot. -- gabbie giffords, in your state which shot you i know is . >> i see some positive signs. you have outlined the causes -- i think you have to add redistricting and incumbents trying to protect each other, cable tv, you raise money by being negative. the shortened schedule -- when i was in the house, we were encouraged to keep our families in washington. now you cannot wait to leave. you come in on tuesday --

>> because washington is portrayed as sodom on the potomac. i am still looking for the action myself. [laughter] >> i think the positive side -- as a trouble, now that i am private, i can travel, i see some members of congress campaigning on both sides saying, i can work with the other side. i see that more and more. i think that is a good sign. secondly, i think the public is going to send a message this election. it may be one that we cannot quantify here. it will not be a beltway message. it will be, you guys need to start working together or there will be a third party. i think that is going to scare a lot of incumbents. lastly, and i am obviously a president -- the president's supporter, i think you'll see a president, considering his

legacy, looking at what he needs to do, and then it will be the republican party, my biggest hope is that the tom ridges, the moderates, just as i want to see more moderates and my party, and there are fewer and fewer, the moderates, i know republicans do not like to be called moderates -- moderate conservatives. >> democrats to not like to be called liberals. they are progressives now. >> what ever. the day a merger -- that the message be -- they are merged -- the message be, this extremism is not going to work. we need the invigoration of the rigids and the schwarzeneggers and senator mccain can play an enormously important role in this. i am thinking that, when the nation goes into crisis, we worked itself up.

-- we work it out. it may not be instant, but i see the problems of climate change, immigration, everybody has said, what is that guy smoking? i see some potential for common ground. >> i think it has much to do with courage. what you are talking about here is that people are afraid to cross the party line. they go in the same direction and hang out together because the voters are going to be upset and they may not get reelected. if you remain objective -- if your only objective is to get reelected, you are screwed right there. yarborough. when you talk about courage, -- you are vulnerable. when you talk about courage, talk about senator mccain, in vietnam, going through an

unbelievable torture. he risked his life. every time one of our brave men and women leads to a rack or afghanistan, wherever they go, they risk their lives. if they can risk their lives for our country, why can politicians not risk their office to make the right decision? [applause] that is where the problem lies. you have to go in there, you have to do it and -- look, every police officer i have met, every firefighter i have met, every single day they do not know if it will see their family again. that is courage -- to risk your life for your community. a politician cannot risk their office? hello -- what are we talking about here? do not take on the job.

it is difficult to govern. it is difficult to be a senator, to be in congress, to do all those things. you can be out of it in one term. so what? you have served four years or six years -- then you move on. if you just want to hang around and think this is your job, to be a career politician, that is a sad story. i think -- that is what we want to teach here at the university. the schwarzenegger institute is about -- the kids to start -- studying terrific things, how to do all these things, solve the problems, but we have to go the next step and say, if you have a different opinion with somebody else, how you get the two ideas together, come to a solution? how do you do that? that is part. how you develop this political courage? in sacramento -- they were

talking about banning sodas from the schools, which everybody knew is a must. kids drink sodas all day long, they get overweight and all the health problems -- all of a sudden, the legislators said they could not go there. i said why not? because the soda companies will kill us. i said, wait a minute, what about the people, the kids? >> they said -- you do not understand. the soda companies give us a lot of money for the campaign, we cannot go there, i am sorry. that is what goes on. there is no courage. that is what we have to change. >> i thought about many of the discussions i had at the table with my parents. my mother is a republican, my dad was a lifelong democrat. we had dinner for 30 minutes each night because he worked second job. one of the things i learned early on -- they both had very strong views about governing and

governments. i learned early on that neither monopoly on the best ideas. neither side has a monopoly, neither side is so pressing that they can predict the future. cisse start off with that mindset -- i have been called for years a moderate republican. i am simply a tom ridge republican. my view has always been -- you have a problem, you have to solve it. he do not learn just to win. there are two parts -- you run to win or you run to govern. it seems we have lost the second part. you are running to win. what is the sense of holding the office if you cannot do something with it? a couple observations -- it is not just republicans and democrats. i suspect -- they ran against to from the right. you are not conservative enough.

lindsey graham was not conservative and off. tommy thompson told me -- when i ran for governor, they thought i was too conservative to be governor of wisconsin. now i'm running for the senate and do not think i am conservative enough. intraparty, we're becoming less and less tolerant. i was taught tolerance and civility was supposedly part of our dna, our political dna. i think the operative word here is courage. y colleague joack hyler, indiana, 1994, i am running for governor because of a controversial issue on the floor. i remember jack standing up and saying, i do not remember the issue, but he stood up and said, this is the vote we should

all passed. it may cost me my election, but i think it is the right thing to do. he passed it and lost. i am not saying that is the reason he did not succeed in his reelection, but it was a statement of courage that i am talking about. from my point of view, this is the right thing to do, take it or leave it. i remember, i was running for governor -- before the primary, i had 100% voting record with the nra. when howard%. with the assault weapon ban -- the idea that a person could walk to the gun store and purchase and ak-47 did not appeal for me -- to me. i voted against it. i remember -- they said, you could lose the election, you could lose the primary. i said, at least then a why. -- i know why.

[laughter] [applause] i think the operative word is courage. i must add, i think there's some responsibility with the media in this as well. there are a lot of factors. [applause] >> i agree. we give our microphones to the most shrill voices. the question is always, what is the debate? what is the argument? all of that. not only is that true, but the blogosphere is even worse than what the organized media does. a lot of the vituperative this and nastiness of anonymity is really there. you had your hand up. >> i wanted to follow up on an optimistic town. i think the hope is, not to overuse the term, in this debate and we are talking about,

civility -- it comes down to the people. we travel around the country a fair amount. one thing i hear from people all the time is that, you see it in the polling. congress is not at the low that it is by accident. it is because they will not work together, that frustrates the people they are supposed to be working for. when enough of them get frustrated and off, you may see a results in the balance -- ballot box this november that will make that case in which the people who have been overly partisan and say, gee whiz, maybe the good people in america really do want us to do things that are positive and productive and help each other. maybe they have said, and not is an off, they will not tolerate it anymore. i feel that -- enough is enough, they will not tolerate that anymore. i feel that when i talked to

regular people in our democracy. i think that is coming and it gives me hope. >> when i got elected the first time in 1978, that was the primary. that was different. >> listening -- i got elected in 1970 by 14 votes, which in my state is 60%. [laughter] one of the very first things that i had the opportunity to do was to sit down with someone from florida who had been in the senate and was an icon. he was chairman of the rules committee. i always admired him so much and asked him on the floor one day if i could go in and talk to him for a minute. i was so impressed by him. i forget what he told me. -- he said, he got elected, but

your place in history will be determined by whether you are a c or 8 d. constructive or destructive in the process. what we need are a lot morec's and a lot fewer d's. forget if your and r or egg d. a d. -- a d. >> but you have had eight unpleasant experience of being defeated. courage is -- of the unpleasant experience of being defeated. courage is wonderful, but you are in congress and think you are doing the right thing. that is your mission. the person running against you think is a total yahoo who is going to do the wrong thing for the people. it is not necessarily a lack of courage to try to get reelected under the circumstances. you think that your continuance

an option -- office is going to be better for the voters than the other guy getting into office. that does mean you have to trim your sales sometimes, doesn't it? >>-- sail sometimes doesn't it? >> i think we are alluding to is the tremendous courage it takes to stand up to special interest groups. weather is the nra, groups on the right or left, you have to do that knowing they will come after you and spend a lot of money doing everything they can do malign your record and make sure people understand that you voted against their particular priority. that plays out over and over again. when you add money and media to that powerful combination, it does take courage to stand up to the nra today or to stand up to a lot of these groups. >> public employees unions, grover norquist. >> exactly. >> how much do you see that as

you try to legislate? >> i do want to make a point that we should not forget. that is, the will of the people is what this is all about. if the people in your state or congressional district cannot agree with you, you may be the most principled individual in the world, but if you are not in tune with their ambitions and expectations for you, then they are not going to reelect you into office. let's not forget that part of the equation either. while we talk about interest groups, etc. -- the majority of people vote one way or the other. this brings me back to the money thing. two things -- what we see in america is a dramatic increase of independent voter registration. in many states, it is even close

to a majority. that is the expression of the people that they are not happy with either party. both parties have to adjust to that or sooner or later you will see an independent party with a candidate that has appeal. we r saw that oss perot. -- we saw that with ross perot. i know mike bloomberg watch them closely and decided this was not the time to do it. it will take somebody with a lot of money because it is so hard to give your name on the ballot. the other point i want to make -- the answer to our fiscal cliff is out there. is called simpson-bowles. the commission came up with was a clear blueprint of how we can get this country back on track. it is not as if we have to invent something. we have to, but another commission -- is there. now we will find out in the

lame-duck session or the beginning of january whether congress and the president will lead and address this issue. or we will face consequences that, indeed you of anybody i have talked to, are catastrophic. that makes me believe that we will probably adopt mostly or in its entirety the commission, which require sacrifice on the part of all parties. [applause] >> i think john is onto something. obviously, i think president obama would have embraced simspson-bowles regardless of the outcome -- i do not think the race could be as close. he was given a bipartisan solution to a problem that people on both sides of the

aisle say exists, and yet you had with the r's and d's. the easy vote in washington is no. you can always find a reason to vote against anything. i think he missed an opportunity. that comes back to the politics of leadership and the courage of leadership. only he knows why he did not do it, but he had the opportunity to be a leader and he did not. talking about what he advocated -- he believed in it. that is important. the comment that wanted to make -- bill richardson got elected in 1982. he had done a marvelous job campaigning on the social security issue. >> this was an member from florida, the champion of the

elderly. he had been in the session for some many years, when he first ran in 1930, his opponents accused him of being a thespian. this was interpreted all kinds of ways. >> did he engaged in mass vacation? >> all of those. things have been rough for a very long time. at least they are not shooting each other, which they were for a lot of our history. but he ran and then came to the house is a very elderly man. he became the champion of the elderly and got through legislation that ended discrimination on the basis of age. because he was considered such a stalwart for the elderly, social security reform was able to pass because he endorsed it.

they thought nothing bad -- nothing he could say would be bad for them. >> republicans live in fear. >> they campaigned against an. >> he was responsible for a dramatic takeover. a very few republicans got elected. i asked him to do a tv show. remember, i got elected in 1982, sworn in in 1983. >> a year when 26 republicans lost their seats in the house. this was remarkable. >> i won by 729 votes. i asked him if he would do a tv program with me. i was most formal for my first reelection. clearly the most honorable. not only -- the most vulnerable. not only did he let out reform -- you would have thought that i had been the architect of the compromise, how gracious and

decent and honorable he was to a young member of congress who he did not now from adam. there was an element of collegiality and -- it's certainly useful purpose to come on the television program. he knew the campaign committee would get him, which they did. at the end of the day, you say to yourself, are we different today because the generation of politicians is different? you have a younger politician -- not the world war ii group who fought through the depression, fought in world war two, sacrificed, pulled together. they came together on the steps of the capitol on the night of september 11 singing god bless america, a unified. we will fight for freedom and be respectful and mourn the loss. then what happened?

i often wonder if it is not a generational or cultural combination. political consultants, they like bashing people with a run as an false commercials and get away with it. >> i think the key in the short- term and long-term lies in 3 bank key voting blocs. i have no data to support this. [laughter] the younger, minorities, and independent voters. i know they are key in this race. how do you get to that? as i woke up this morning, rather difficult because i came in from the east coast, i read that the iphone, the sale of the iphone 5 was going to put a jolt

into the economy that was $5 billion. in other words, it will effect the economy. i think that whoever figures out social media and technology, new ways of communicating with voters, linking policy -- because the way we have all communicated with each other and election-yearer, tv ads, cable, with all due respect, i wish you a comeback. i think that is a thing of the past. i think it will be a thing of the past. whoever is able in these three voting blocs, whoever is able to figure out a party, democrats, republicans, a third party, how to lincoln permission flow, education, expanding voter turnout. that is still a problem.

we will only have 57% of eligible voters floativoting. they will control the american body politic. i see that as a healthy thing. so i posed a problem without an answer. at least i will say i think i am optimistic that this new technology is going to bring more education -- information to people in those three groups that i think are the ones that will determine where this country goes. >> governor schwarzenegger -- this is your institute, so you have the last word. >> i think one of the things we should also talk about is the importance of recognizing the power of sub-national governments, regional governments, local governments. so many times, cities and states and counties, provinces

around the world, they are always waiting for some action on the national level. for instance, environmental issues -- the fact of the matter is that if you -- you as the state or local government can do a lot to move the agenda forward. we had a disagreement with washington under the bush administration when i became governor. they did their thing to protect the environment, we had another vision in california. we disagree, but we move forward. we did not wait for anybody. we made commitments to reduce greenhouse gases by 25% by year 2020 and 85% by year 2015. we came up with a portfolio of renewable -- a renewable portfolio of 30% by 2020. new common standards. all the things we did -- so much so that secretary-general bank ki-moon encouraged all the other

countries to go in the same direction, national governments -- sub-national governments have power and organization. he wanted to encourage them to go in that direction. environmental issues -- that is one issue. there are so many other issues you can address on a sub- national level. that is one thing to do at the schwarzenegger institute, to teach that and make people aware of the power of states and cities and counties. >> i think this has been a wonderful inaugural program. i want to thank the panel very much. thank you all so much for coming in. [applause] those of you who are registered for lunch, we look forward to seeing you there. i am just going to lead you,

since i am a catholic girl, with the story of saint augusta. let us not on either side claim we have already discovered the truth. let us seek to gather as something that is known to neither of us. then only may we seek it lovingly and frankly if there be no bold presumptions that it is already discovered and possessed. that is the formula for civil discourse. thank you all. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> we asked c-span viewers what they thought of the first presidential debate. >> i thought obama could have grilled mitt romney on a lot of the things. i love the point he made -- the 47% comment. i think he could grow more. i do think mitt romney did a very good job of bringing forward his arguments. i do feel he was a bit rude in interrupting president obama and the moderator both. >> and i think that even as a democrat myself, mitt romney had some good points. i think that obama could have been a lot more aggressive in this debate. you do not spend the first 20 seconds of the first presidential debate wishing to write a happy anniversary. >> romney did what he was supposed to do.

things are not looking good for him. it was natural for him to go back there and be very defensive, as he was to 92 it was incredible to see mitt romney --. >> -- it was incredible, to see mitt romney, who has been dehumanized and beat up, to become human for so many people. you see a compassionate and well composed and absolutely presidential timbre. he is not only well-versed, but he can hold as down anywhere. -- his own anywhere. that has not been seen in the last few months by most americans. >> i was really disappointed by the debate. i think that while president obama has really substantive points, as he was meandering. i expected better of him as a public speaker. every time governor romney was pressed on what specifically he was going to do, what specifically are your numbers, he would say things like "let's

just make up a number." that is not confidence- inspiring. i feel terrible for jim lehrer, who did not seem to have control of the debate at any point. i do not know if he needs to be given more tools to assert himself, but that does not include my view of either candidate. >> neither touched on what is truly important -- which is immigration. it has grown so much and we get nothing in return. that is the main key right there. we have fewer americans making more money than true americans. if we do not do this, america will fall on a matter what we do. >> the body language of the candidates was -- i think romney won that. as far as ron nepos ideas, he has said a lot of stuff about his changes he made to the state, but the national stage will be different. something that is a little far-

fetched right now. >> i think it is a job. they both have their composure, they both made their points. mr. romney did look a little frustrated a few times. i likened him to a pit bull on a leash. but he did make his points. i agree with him on the values. whereas the democratic party, i do not agree with their value system at all. >> the body language on these guys -- they seemed like they were full of crap. the key to avoiding the real issues. >> i have a visceral reaction tonight the whole time romney was talking. i would say, how? how? he wanted to say how he would do all this stuff. but he did not tell us how. it was extremely frustrating. >> obama did not mention anything about china.

he skirted a lot of questions and was never direct to the point. mitt seemed very confident in his actions, seemed to outline everything. if you do not have details to his plans -- number one, i think this, we are doing that, number three, we are doing that. i think we had a very good debate session coming up in the good future. i hope mitt polls through. >> i think both candidates did a good job. i was more impressed with the president and because of that i am getting off the fence and going with the president. i think the moderator could have exercised more control. he kind of let romney cut in and takeover more than he should have. i found obama to be more of -- more believable. >> i was ok with the moderator.

he allowed us to see the true personality of the candidates. that is what we need, more of what they really are. >> the debate was not anything really special. i felt that romney was being a bit ridiculous, constantly interrupting obama, but overall i am not -- not much of a great debate. >> i think the moderator was very disappointing. he did not control the debate at all. obama had much more time than romney. i think a couple of times, romney did sort of interrupt, but he had to. obama had been on for five minutes. i timed it myself. >> watch and engage on c-span as -- at the vice-presidential debate next thursday from center college in kentucky. two more debates -- first, a town hall on october 16 from hofstra university in new york. the final debate, monday, october 22, from lynn university in florida, focused on foreign

policy. >> the presidential campaign returns to virginia tomorrow morning. president obama will hold a rally at george mason university in fairfax, a washington d.c. suburb. that is live on c-span at 10:45 eastern. also on c-span at 11:35 a.m. eastern, we bring you a rally for mitt romney from abingdon in southwestern virginia. >> see the only vice presidential debate next thursday, october 11, live on c- span, c-span radio, and online at c-span.org. watch and engage. in a few moments, today's campaign events with president obama in colorado, followed by mitt romney in virginia. after that, a forum on the election outlook after the presidential debate with charlie cook. later, we will read-eddie symposium on partisan politics and compromise.

>> almost 20 years ago, we broadcast one of the most controversial stories in our 44 years on the air. it was called "yes, but is it art? " i was accused of being a philistine, somebody lacking the aesthetic sensibilities to appreciate the challenging nature of some contemporary art. in 20 years, worksite questions -- what made everybody so that 20 years ago? >> i discovered something i have absolutely barely believed. , it isu question someone' more personal and probing than politics, religion, sexual

preference, it is something that goes to the very soul when you say, you bought that? >> morley safer on his career. >> president obama campaign thursday and -- in wisconsin and colorado. his first event after his debate with mitt romney. this is a half hour. [cheers and applause] >> hello, colorado. [cheers and applause]

it is good to be back in denver. could everybody please give lily a great round of applause for that great introduction? we have your great senators in the house, your great terrific members of congress are here, we have the campaign co-chairs, and most importantly we have all of you, even though you had to give them up a little quicker than expected. i love you back. now, the reason i was in denver is to see all of you, and it is always pretty, but we also had our first debate last night. and when i got onto the stage, i met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be mitt romney. but it could not have been mitt romney because the real mitt romney has been running around

the country for the last year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts to pay for the wealthy. the fellow onstage last night said he did not know anything about that. the real mitt romney said we do not need any more teachers in our classrooms. [booing] don't boo -- vote. but the fellow onstage last

night, he loves teachers, cannot get enough of them. the mitt romney we all know invested in companies that were called pioneers of the outsourcing jobs to other countries. but he got onstage last night, he said that he does not even know that there are such laws that encourage outsourcing. he has never heard of them. never heard of them. never heard of tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas. he said if it is true, must need a new accountant. we know for sure it was not the real big trouble because he -- the real mitt romney because

he seems to be doing just fine with his current accountant. the man onstage last night does not want to be held accountable for mitt romney's decisions and what he has been saying for the last year. we know we do not want what he has been saying for the last year. he knows full well. [applause] governor romney made the answer on his positions, but if you want to be president, you owe the american people the truth. [applause] here is the truth -- governor romney not pay for his $5 trillion tax plan. we cannot afford another round of budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy. we cannot afford to subsidize

wall street or big oil or insurance companies. we cannot afford to double-down on the same economic policies that got us into this mess. that is not a plan that creates jobs, grow the economy. that is not change. that is a relapse. we do not want to go back there. where not going back. we are going forward. i have a different idea about how we create jobs. this country does not succeed when we only see the rich getting richer. we succeed with the middle- class gets richer. we grow our economy not from the top down, but from the middle out. we do not believe that anybody is entitled to success, but we believe in opportunity.

we believe in a country where hard work pays off and where responsibility is rewarded and everybody is doing their fair share and everybody plays by the same rules. that is what the country is for. that is why i am running for president of the united states, and that is why i want your vote. >> four more years! >> what i talked about last not was a new economic patriotism, a patriotism based on the belief that growing our economy begins with a strong, thriving

middle-class. that means we export more products and we outsourced and fewer jobs. in the last three years we came together to reinvent a dying auto industry that is back on top of the world. we have created more than 500,000 new manufacturing jobs, so now you have a choice. we closed tax breaks, and we reward companies that create jobs in the united states. that is what we are looking for. we can help small business double their exports and create 8 million manufacturing jobs. i want to control our energy. after 30 years of inaction, we have raised fuel standards by the middle of the next decade so your cars and trucks will be going twice as far on a gallon of gas. we have doubled the amount of renewable energy that we generate from sources like wind and solar. thousands of americans have jobs building wind turbines and

long-lasting batteries. the united states today is less dependent on foreign oil than any time in the last two decades. now you have a choice between a plan that reverses this progress or one that builds on it. my opponent said he refuses to close a loophole that gives big oil companies $4 billion in tax subsidies every year. we have a better plan that we keep investing in wind, solar, and clean coal, where construction workers are retrofitting homes so they waste less energy, and we can develop a supply of natural gas that creates hundreds of thousands of jobs and we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020. that will be good for our

economy, for colorado, and that will be good for america, and that is what we're fighting for. that is why i am running for a second term as president of the united states. i want to give more the chance to get the skills they need to compete. i talked about how education was the gateway of opportunity, and it was for michelle and for me and so many of you. it is the gateway for a middle- class life. today students are paying less for college because we took on a system that was wasting taxpayer dollars on bankers and lenders.

we could cut education, we could decide that in the united states students should have their dream deferred because of an overcrowded classroom. no company should have to look for workers in china because they could not find any of the right skills here. we will recruit 100,000 new teachers and we will improve early childhood education and create 2 million more slots in community colleges so workers can get trained for the jobs that are out there right now, and we will continue to do everything we need to do to cut the growth of tuition costs because every young person in america should have the opportunity to go to college without being loaded up with hundreds of -- tens of thousands of dollars' worth of debt. i have a plan that will cut the

deficit by $4 trillion with a mix of spending cuts and higher taxes on wealthiest americans. i have already worked with republicans to cut back trillion of dollars of spending, and i want to do more. i want to reform the tax code so it is fair, so that incomes over $250,000 will go back to the rate when bill clinton was president, that created the biggest surplus in history. last night romney ruled out raising a dollar of taxes on anybody, closing out the loophole that is $4 billion in corporate welfare, refused to acknowledge the loophole that gives tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and when he was asked what he would do to cut the deficit, said he would eliminate

funding for public television. that was his answer. thank goodness somebody is finally getting tough on big bird. it is about time. [laughter] we did not know that big bird was driving the federal deficit, but that is what we heard last night. how about that? elmo, too? [laughter] look, the fact is governor romney's numbers do not add up. i had to spend time last night trying to pin it down. the only way to pay for $5 trillion in the tax cuts and $2

trillion in the defense spending that the military says it does not need is by asking the middle-class to pay more. i refuse to do that. i refuse to ask middle-class families to give up their deductions for owning a home or raising their kids just to pay for another millionaire's tax cut, just to pay for more tax cuts that we cannot afford. i will never turn medicare into a voucher. [applause] governor romney doubled down on the proposal last night, and he

is wrong. no american should have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies. they should retire with the dignity they have earned. we will perform and strengthen medicare for a long haul, but reducing the cost of health care, not by asking seniors to pay thousands of dollars more, and we will keep promise of social security by taking the responsible steps to strengthen it. we will have a chance to talk about what is going on overseas, because our prosperity at home is linked to what happens abroad. four years ago, i promised to end the war in iraq, and i did. [applause] i said we would wind down the war in afghanistan in a responsible way, and we are. [applause] while a new tower is rising above the new york skyline, al qaeda is on the run and osama

bin laden is dead. [applause] we still face serious threats throughout the world. we saw that a few weeks ago, and that is a why we will sustain the strongest military the world has ever known, and when troops take off the uniforms, we will serve them as well as they have served us, because nobody should have to fight for a job when they come home or a roof over their heads if they have fought for our country. they have earned our respect and our honor. that is a commitment i make. it will be interesting to see what mitt romney will say about foreign policy when we meet next, because he said it was tragic to end the war in iraq. he will not tell us how he will

end the war in afghanistan. and i will use the money we are no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work, rebuilding our roads and bridges and schools and runways and broadband lines, because after a decade of war, it is time to do some nation-building at home and do and put some folks to work at home. [applause] this is the choice we now face. this is what the election comes down to. over and over we had been told by our opponents that since government cannot do everything, it should do almost nothing, if you cannot afford health insurance, we hope you do not get sick, and that if a company is releasing toxic pollution into the air, that is the price of progress. you cannot go to college -- just borrow money from your

parents. as i described last night, that is not who we are, not what this country is about. in america we believe we are in this together. we understand america is not about what can be done for us, it is about what we can do as one nation, and you understand that, or the reason there is a teacher in pueblo who can buy and home using new tax credits. you have made that happen. you are the reason a woman can get treatment she needs to beat cancer. now that there are affordable plans to cover pre-existing conditions, we can do that. you made that happen.

you are the reason thousands of students at colleges have more help paying for college this year. that happened because of you. you are the reason a young immigrant who grew up here and went to school here and pledges allegiance to our flag will no longer be deported from the only country she has ever called home. you are the reason an outstanding soldier will not be kicked out the military because of who he loves. you are the reason why thousands of families have been able to say to their loved ones who served us so greatly, welcome home, welcome home, welcome home. if you turn away now, you buy into the cynicism of how the change we fought for is not possible, then change will not happen. if you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, that lobbyists and

special interests and the people who are writing the $10 million checks will end up dominating the airwaves, and that is how things and ordinary folks get left out, all the folks who are trying to make it harder for you to vote, the folks in washington who think they should control that health-care choices that women should be making for themselves. only you can make change happen. only you have the power to move us forward. from the day we began this campaign, i always said real change takes time, it takes more than one term. you cannot do it if it have a president who writes off half the nation before he even takes office.

you know, in 2008 47% of the country did not vote for me. on the night of the election i said all those americans, i may not have won your votes, i have heard your voices, i need your help, and i will be your president, too. that is all i want to say to denver. what i want to say to the great state of colorado, i do not know how many of you will be with me this time around, but i will plead with you no matter what, because i'm not fighting to create democratic or republican, jobs, i am fighting to create american jobs. i am not fighting to improve schools in red states or blue states, i am fighting to improve schools in the united states. and if we rally around a new

sense of economic patriotism, a sense of how we build an economy from the middle out and give ladders of opportunity to everyone, we will strengthen the middle class, we will keep moving forward. i believe politics is not as divided as it seems sometimes. i believe in you. i ask you to keep on believing in me. i am asking for your vote, and if you are willing to stand with me and work with me, we are going to win denver again, we are going to win colorado again. we will finish what we start. we will remind the world why the united states is the greatest country on earth. god bless you and god bless the united states of america. ♪

♪ ["we take care of our own" by

bruce springsteen playing]

["only in america" by brooks and dunn playing]

♪ ♪

>> mitt romney accepted the endorsement of the nra on thursday. it was his first campaign event

following the debate, and he was joined from his running mate paul rayn. in a recent poll, among likely voters in virginia, obama leads romney 48% to 46%. >> thank you. how about it for trace atkins? i looked out at all the cars there, it looks like that movie "field of dreams," but the dream is to save our freedom. virginia is ground zero. are you ready to make a difference in this election? let me tell you why. we as americans, we breathed

freer air, live at freer lives, we have more opportunity from the day we are born than anyone else on the face of the planet. other countries that try to copy us, but nobody has been able to duplicate the united states of america. it is because of the freedoms we have in our bill of rights and the constitution. the united states of america, the greatest country the world has ever known and the greatest achievement in freedom. we are also the first country founded not on a race, royalty, religion, but on a set of god- given inalienable rights and freedoms and all of you know that. i look out tonight at you, and i know you are about citizenship, patriotism. you are about core american values.

i looked out at you and i literally feel a bond and a fabric that keeps the country free. i know every single one of you believe in the unique benefits of that freedom, do you not? you believe our freedoms and make us stronger. you believe our freedoms and make us better. you believe our way of life is better. you believe our second amendment makes us better. you are sure not free if you cannot defend yourself, and everyone knows that. i also know something else about you. you are not going to submit, some cut -- succumb, or be marginalized. you are ready to make a difference. we have to do that. we stand on the edge of an obama cliff with our freedoms.

of president obama gets reelected -- >> boos. >> he will have a 1-3 supreme court appointments. if that happens, we can kiss our constitutional rights to own firearms goodbye along with the rest of a lot of other freedoms. does anybody trust the obama administration to a second term to be anywhere near negotiating with a bat government called the united nations on our freedom? not a one of them have a bill of rights like the united states of america. they are about government. there gun plan is to turn over your firearms and protections to the government. the government will protect you. does anyone think that will

happen? that you end plan is about global agencies monitoring, surveillance, lists, all institutionalized within the bureaucracy of the united nations with a permanent funding mechanism largely paid for by u.s. taxpayers. nowhere do they talk about due process, privacy, individual rights, freedom, a bill of rights. what we are about here in the united states of america. i guarantee you this, if your glass bricks at 2:00 at night from a criminal, you all know the baby blue helmets from the u.n. will not be there to protect the. and neither will president obama or eric holder. what will protect you is the freedom we have under the second amendment of the constitution. there is not a government or an authority on the planet that can match that if you are ever in that situation.

let me talk about one other thing real quick. this whole fast and furious situation. under the obama administration and their justice department, they sent thousands of guns to the most evil people on the planet, the mexican drug cartels. they had a massive campaign to manipulate public opinion with the whole a 90% nonsense. the president, vice president, secretary clinton, they sounded like a barbershop quartet singing that. it was not true. they were ruining the lives of honest american citizens that own firearm shops that they told to make the sales. they went ahead and make the sales and the media is reporting there are unscrupulous dealers and some they even tried to prosecute. when good federal agents down the line blew the whistle on the mess, they tried a massive

cover-up scene. the best way to give eric holder his walking place papers is to give president obama his walking papers on election day. we really are on the edge of an obama cliff. before president obama thought the gun owners matter, he was for a handgun ban, semiautomatic ban, he was for banning single shot, side-by-side shotguns. he wanted to raise the excise tax that you would pay on firearms and ammunition by 500%. and that is $350 federal tax on a $500 rifle. he was for eliminating all rights to carry permits and all 41 states and was one of nine illinois legislators to vote to

jail a homeowner that in the middle of the knife used a firearm against a criminal with a rap sheet as long as your arm. -- the middle of the night use a firearm against a criminal with a rap sheet as long as your arm. and he voted on a vote that it succeeded would have put every firearm company out of business with hundreds of thousands of jobs and what have left our personal security and our military security dependent upon the chinese, the russians, the french, the germans, and the italians. if you talk about allows a plan for america, that is it. -- a lousy plan for america, that is it. we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. if president obama is reelected, we will see an anti second mmm rampage like we have never seen before.

this could truly break the back of the second amendment in this country. it is the most dangerous election in our lifetime. if president obama gets reelected, our individual rights to own a firearm will be gone. we will go to our great kissing the freedom goodbye. i have already said virginia is ground zero. are you ready to saddle up and ride and be a paul revere for freedom in this state? and this is an all in election. all of our freedoms, all of our rights, all of our way of life and all of the second amendment is on the line. all means you. nobody can sit this election out. we are virginians. we are patriots. we are american. our view all in for romney/ryan

on election day? [cheers and applause] thank you very much. always defend freedom every single day. >> thank you. what we do between now and november 6 will determine the type of country our kids and grandkids grow up and. the question is will it to be a country of more government, more spending, more debt, more government intrusion into our personal lives and less freedom? that is important, because that is barack obama's vision for the future of the country. it is a country we hardly recognize, let alone live in. with the supreme court bounce by one vote and all the other long- term issues before our country, this is not about the next four

years. this election is about to the next 40 years. there are 100 reasons to deny barack obama for more years and office. none are more important than defending the freedoms that make this country great. these are the freedoms we have to fight for. these are the freedoms at stake in this election. fight. do everything you can between now and election day. fight for these kids and grandkids here today. [cheers and applause] fight for our soldiers who put it all on the line defending our freedom overseas so they can come home to an america as free as when they left it. [cheers and applause] send a message to the national news media. their coverage of this race is a national disgrace.

[cheers and applause] you know, we have a message for cnn, abc, cbs. you will not decide the outcome of this election. we, the people, will decide the outcome of this election. we live in a country that is getting harder to recognize every day. led by a president who mocks our values, be littles' our faith, and is threatened by our freedoms. you know it and i know it. barack obama is another washington, d.c. politician who will say what ever it takes to get elected. do not believe him. do not believe the slick campaign ads. do not believe his cheerleader friends and the media. do not let your friends believe

it either. barack obama has not changed washington. he cannot change washington because barack obama is what is wrong with washington. [cheers and applause] thankfully, we have a choice. the choice could not be more clear. on behalf of the 4 million men and women of the national rifle association and tens of millions of nra supporters across the country, it is my honor to announce the and are a's endorsement of mayor romney and paul ryan for president and vice president of the united states. -- nra's endorsement of mitt romney and paul ryan for president and vice president of the united states. now i have a great honor of introducing a great american patriot. the next vice president of the

united states of america, paul ryan. ♪ >> hello, everybody. man. wow. look at you. look at this. awesome. man.

thank you, fishersville. thank you virginia for making mitt romney the next president of the united states of america. wow. chris cox and i have been friends a long time. i have been subscribing to "american rifleman" and "american hunter" since i was about 12. i have my phone here. it has a blaze orange and camouflage cover because after we elect mitt romney president, i can take my daughter deer hunting. i want to thank you virginia. i want to think the lieutenant governor. i want to thank my friend. thank you for coming. thank you for making virginia a better place. friends, i love you, too. every now and then, we see a glimpse into the future. last night, we saw a clear

picture. we saw a clear choice. last night, america got to see the man i know, a leader, a decisive man -- a man with a plan to get people back to work and to protect our freedom. every now and then, president obama in a moment of candor reveals his thoughts. remember four years ago when he was talking to people in san francisco, he said people in the midwest like to cling to their guns and their religion. this catholic deer hunter is

guilty as charged and proud of it. another issue that came up -- taxes. last night, president obama made it clear he is going to raise taxes. today, vice president joe biden made it even more clear. in iowa, he said he asked himself a question -- if he and president obama want a trillion dollar tax hike. his response to himself was yes, we do. that is a direct quote. virginia, no, we do not mitt romney will talk about this in a minute. what we do not need is a trillion-dollar tax increase -- actually, it is a bit more than

that, but what we do not need is a tax increase that will cost us 700,000 jobs. two years ago, the president said you do not want to raise taxes in a bad economy. the economy was better than that it is now. ladies and gentleman, this is a big choice. it is not only about taxes. it is about freedom. it is about our principles. it is about our country. it is about the idea of our country. america is so much more than a country with a flag. it is an idea. these ideas make us who we are. they make us special. i will see something that in washington is considered out of date or wrong, and it is this -- america is an exceptional

nation. we are not afraid to say so. [cheers and applause] >> usa! usa! usa! >> we have a chance to get ourselves on the right track. we have a chance to vote for someone who will protect our freedoms. he will lead to protect our religious freedom. he will protect our second amendment rights. ladies and gentlemen, right here in virginia, we have a big choice to make. america has a big choice to make. america will make the right choice. they saw last night who the right man for the job is. that man is standing back here. he will be the president of the united states. please welcome the next

president of united states, mitt romney. [cheers and applause] ♪ [playing "born free" by kid rock] ♪

>> that is one heck of a virginia welcome. thank you, virginia. [cheers and applause] thank you, paul. doesn't the music just brighten up your day? [applause] we appreciate the endorsement of the nra. [applause] last night was an important night for the country. [cheers and applause]

they got the chance to cut through all the attacks and counterattacks and all the theatrics associated with the campaign and instead listen to substance. i appreciate the fact that jim lehrer asked questions about substance. i appreciated that i was able to ask obama about obamacare. i asked, why is it that the middle class is still buried in this coury? why do we have millions of people out of work? why is it that half of our kids coming out of college cannot find a job? why is it that when he took office, 32 million people were on food stamps and now millions more are on food stamps? i asked him those questions. you heard his answers.

as a result of those answers, the american people recognize that he and i stand for something very different. i will help the american people get good jobs and a bright future. [cheers and applause] even more importance than what was happening in the past was what he plans on doing for the future. he had the chance to describe his vision for the future. what it was was more of the same. he described a series of ideas that we have heard before. he talks about stimulus and hiring more government workers and having the government make investments. of course, he talks about raising taxes. they plan to raise taxes on the american people and that will

kill jobs. we want to create jobs and not kill jobs in this country. [applause] we also heard this plan are raising taxes and cutting medicare. in fact, there has been a study released this week. the people look at his spending plans and all of the debt they create and interest that its charge. he will raise taxes on the middle class as well by some $4,000 per family. the american people do not want more taxes. they want less spending and more growth. we will do that and get america back on a balanced budget. [applause] i do not want to raise taxes on any one. this president seems to think that keeping our taxes the same

as they are now is a huge tax cut. only in washington would do thing keeping taxes as they are is a huge tax cut. i will find a way to bring down our taxes. we will give the middle class a tax break. [cheers and applause] you know when it comes to creating jobs that paul ryan and i have a plan. it is not a repeat of the last four years because we cannot afford four more years of the last four years. it is an entirely different direction. it has five different parts. number one, we will take advantage of our energy, coal, gas, oil, nuclear. the president has cut in half

the number of permits and licenses on federal lands and in federal waters. i will double them. the president has made it virtually impossible to build a coal industry in this country. we have a lot of coal and i want to use it. the president doesn't want the keystone pipeline. i will get us that oil from canada. i will open up more trade. we can trade on a fair basis with people around the world. but when people steal our jobs and trade practices as china has, i will hold them accountable. we cannot let our jobs get stolen unfairly. i want to make sure the people have the skills that they need to succeed. i want training programs that prepare people for the jobs of

today. right now have 47 different federal training programs reporting to eight different agencies. think of the overhead and the bureaucracy and waste. i want to take that money and give virginia its fair share and say, you create the training programs that work for your people. get the federal government out of it. [cheers and applause] you're not going to get entrepreneurs to start a new business or big corporations to expand and build a new facility and hire more people if they believe we are on the road to greece. if this president is re- elected, that is the road we will be on. i will cut and cap spending and get us to a balanced budget. [cheers and applause] the last step to get this economy going is to do this -- champion small businesses.

help them grow and keep their taxes down. by the way, the president has a bad idea when it comes to small businesses. this is his idea of taking away the right of the secret ballot for workers when they decide whether or not they want a union. they should have a right to a secret ballot. he wants to take it away. i will protect the rights of workers. [applause] president obama says that he has created 5 million new jobs. what he has not told you is that the economy has not created jobs like it should have. this has been the slowest recovery since the great depression.

as a matter of fact, he said we would be at 5.4% of unemployment. instead we are at 8.1%. 9 million jobs different. that is the difference. when paul and i get to the white house, we will get america back to working with 12 million jobs. [cheers and applause] let me make this point clear. 8.1% unemployment understates what is really going on. a lot of people are working. they are having a hard time making ends meet. their incomes have gone down by $4,300 per year. the price of gasoline has gone up.